Professional and College Sports
|
  |
|
Professional
We’re No. 1 and proud of it. St. Louis is a recognized world class sport city with The Sporting News naming it the nation's “Best Sports City” in 2000 and the “Best Baseball City” in 2005. We’re home to the St. Louis Rams, St. Louis Cardinals, and St. Louis Blues professional sports franchises, along with many other popular teams:
College
Greater St. Louis is also home to numerous colleges that compete nationally, including the Washington University Bears, St. Louis University Billikens, University of Missouri-St. Louis Tritons, and Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Cougars, which announced in 2008 that they will now be competing in NCAA Division I athletics.
Its central location nationally and world-class venues have supported St. Louis as a popular host city to numerous NCAA Division I college championships:
- 2000 Wrestling Championships
- 2001 Women's Final Four®
- 2004 Wrestling Championships
- 2005 Wrestling Championships
- 2005 Men's Final Four®
- 2006 Men's College Cup®
- 2007 Men's Frozen Four®
- 2008 Wrestling Championships
This year St. Louis again played host, as the city welcomed both the 2009 men's wrestling championships and the 2009 women's basketball Final Four.
Venues
St. Louis area teams play in a number of top-notch venues, which attract millions of visitors to the area every year.
- Busch Stadium, a retro-style ballpark, opened in 2006 just in time to host the Cardinals' World Series victory that same year. It is also scheduled to host the 80th MLB All-Star Game on July 14, 2009.
- The Edward Jones Dome, home to the 2000 Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams, holds an impressive 67,000 spectators while offering fans a vast array of amenities on four different concourse levels.
- The Blues compete in the Scottrade Center, a 19,000-seat arena. The Scottrade Center also hosts numerous other events, including professional wrestling and concerts.
- St. Louis University's new Chaifetz Arena opened in March 2008. It seats just over 10,000 for SLU Billiken NCAA Division I basketball and also hosts concerts and other events.
- Gateway International Raceway features a 1.25 mile track, a quarter-mile drag strip, and a 1.6-mile road circuit. The Track hosts over 300 events per year, bringing in over 500,000 fans, and is one of only a few facilities in North America that can host all major forms of professional motorsports (1).
- In an effort to bring Major League Soccer to the area, plans have been unveiled for St. Louis Soccer United Stadium. The complex will be located on more than 400 acres just north of Collinsville, IL. It will feature a main stadium capable of holding 18,500 fans, as well a youth complex consisting of eight fields. The entire concept is meant to create the ultimate soccer experience for fans and families (2).
Sources:
St. Louis Sports Commission, www.stlouissports.org/.
(1) "The Track," Gateway International Raceway.
(2) "Professional Soccer Stadium," St. Louis Soccer United.
Updated: April 16, 2009
