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St. Louis City engages Elevate to boost stadium ticketing, sponsorship efforts

Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion franchise St. Louis City SC has appointed the Elevate Sports Ventures consulting firm to help drive sponsorship, premium and ticket sales efforts ahead of its entry into the competition in 2023.

The announcement comes with fans being able to start placing deposits to reserve their season ticket purchasing spot at the club’s new stadium from today (Wednesday). Elevate will leverage the expertise and resources from its roster of founding partners to support sponsorship, premium and ticket sales for St. Louis City.

Formed in partnership between NFL team the San Francisco 49ers and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) in 2018, Elevate welcomed Oak View Group (OVG) and Ticketmaster and Live Nation as partners in June 2018.

Elevate’s team will connect brands to St. Louis’ team and stadium. Offerings available include placement on team kits and exposure in the proposed 22,500-seat Downtown West stadium.

Overseeing the Elevate team’s efforts is St. Louis City’s chief revenue officer, Dennis Moore.

He said: “As we continue to prepare for our kickoff in 2023, the team at Elevate will play a key role in our success and we’re diligently working together to finalise essential details for season tickets. It’s amazing to think in just three years we’ll have a stadium filled with fans from all around the region.”

Al Guido, chairman of Elevate Sports Ventures, added: “We are proud of the part Elevate has played and will continue to play in supporting MLS in a city with such a rich history in and love for soccer; this is the beginning of something extraordinary for the fans and brands in St. Louis.”

In July, MLS delayed the debuts of its new franchises in Charlotte, St. Louis and Sacramento by one year as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on the clubs’ stadium developments and business operations.

While Austin FC remains on schedule to begin competition in 2021 as planned, Charlotte, originally scheduled to begin MLS play next season, will now debut in 2022. St. Louis and Sacramento will begin play in 2023 instead of 2022.

Charlotte, St. Louis and Sacramento were each awarded MLS expansion teams in the second half of 2019. Led by Carolyn Kindle Betz and the first female majority ownership in league history, St. Louis was awarded an MLS team in August last year.

The ownership group was given a boost in March after the Missouri Development Finance Board (MDFB) voted in favour of providing a $5.7m (£4.39m/€4.81m) tax break to help pay for the team’s stadium.

Image: St. Louis City SC