The seven supporter groups for St. Louis City SC turn every home match into a party, from pregame street festivals and a parade into the stadium to nonstop chants, music and flag-waving during the game.
But this summer, all that will be missing from some of St. Louis' matches.
The groups plan to boycott City games in the Leagues Cup to protest Major League Soccer’s decision to only allow some MLS teams to participate in the U.S. Open Cup.
In addition to the regular-season games, MLS teams participate in tournaments that run concurrently and provide a different level of competition. The oldest is the U.S. Open Cup, founded in 1914.
The format allows more than 100 U.S. soccer teams to participate, including some amateur and semiprofessional teams in the early rounds before MLS teams enter.
“Having lower-league teams be able to play against professional teams and teams in the MLS, I think it’s one of the pillars of soccer worldwide,” said Carlos Restrepo, founder and president of STL Santos, one of the City supporters groups.
“Almost every country has that type of tournament," he said. "You see a lot of like David versus Goliath stories, and it's just a lot of fun."
City will not participate in the U.S. Open Cup this year after a decision by MLS to limit the number of teams that will be allowed to enter the tournament. The league excluded St. Louis because it was in the CONCACAF Champions Cup that started in February.
Only eight of the 29 MLS teams will be in the tournament. MLS called the decision a compromise.
“The conversations focused on increasing the overall investment in the Open Cup, providing young players with important developmental opportunities, reducing schedule congestion for MLS clubs, and addressing load management concerns to aid player health and safety,” MLS officials wrote on the league’s website.
But, City supporter groups contend the decision is only about money. While the Open Cup has been played more than 100 times, the Leagues Cup was started in 2019 as a joint venture between MLS and Liga MX, the top soccer league in Mexico. All MLS teams will participate in that tournament.
The supporters groups call Leagues cup “a cash grab” that ignores history, and that’s why they are planning to boycott those games in St. Louis in August.
“We chose [to boycott] the Leagues Cup because that is a new tournament set up by the league,” said Austin Adams, one of the founders and leaders of supporters group Fleur de Noise. “So we rather support and celebrate a tournament with over 100 years of history than one that is there to just make a quick buck and doesn't have any history or kind of community around it.”
St. Louis City SC does not agree with the MLS decision. President and General Manager Diego Gigliani said he wants his team to play in the Open Cup.
“While we understand the decision taken and the need for making some improvements to the US Open Cup, it's a competition that we value a lot, and we prefer to play in the US Open Cup," Gigliani said. "St. Louis as a city has a really rich history in the competition."
That history in St. Louis is at the center of the supporters' boycott. Teams from St. Louis won the cup 10 times over its century of play.
“We felt it was such a disappointment for St. Louis to not be involved in the Open Cup whatsoever," said Sarah Roberts, one of the St. Louligans' leaders. "It’s an affront to St. Louis soccer. It's an affront to the club. It's an affront to the fans. It's an affront to the entire soccer system."
“All that history made this possible today,” she said Saturday, gesturing to a street party going on before St. Louis' match against New York City FC.
The supporters also say MLS is shooting itself in the foot by not embracing and supporting all soccer around the country.
“MLS wants soccer fans in Omaha, in Des Moines, in Wichita, in Springfield, Illinois, to be fans of MLS teams," said Fleur de Noise's Adams. "They (MLS) don't want them to be fans of their local team."
“You can be a fan of your local team, go and support your local small fourth-division, third-division team. And you still can support the big league, the major league,” he said.
Supporters said the U.S. Open Cup creates more fans at all levels of soccer.
MLS officials did not respond to requests to comment on the planned boycott. The supporters hope boycotting the Leagues Cup games will get the attention of the league.
Restrepo, of the STL Santos supporter group, points to the impact supporters had last year when St. Louis hosted Mexico’s Club America in a Leagues Cup match last year.
“That was a huge night for us as a Latino supporters group, because we had people who had not heard of City SC in the Hispanic community very excited to come and see play against one of the biggest teams in Mexico and in the Americas, and we brought a party," he said. "We had a huge turnout."
“I think that when they see that we're not doing that, that the stadium is going to be quiet or just filled with opposing fans, hopefully it makes the people who run the league rethink their approach.”
