A week after St. Louis CITY SC was presented with the prestigious 2024 Prix Versailles World Title for the world’s most beautiful sports venue, the club has earned four year-end accolades from Major League Soccer for its achievements across sustainability, fan experience, mental health and security.
CITY SC has won the Marisa Colaiano Community Impact Club of the Year for its Goal: ZERO stadium sustainability program, Match Presentation Team of the Year for producing a best-in-class matchday experience for fans, Digital Activation of the Year for its “Tackle the Struggle” mental health campaign and Security Club of the Year.
“Our ownership group founded this club with the vision to be about more than soccer. Winning awards for our best-in-class impact on sustainability, mental health, matchday experience and stadium security reaffirms our team’s relentless drive to materialize this vision in innovative ways,” said Diego Gigliani, St. Louis CITY SC’s President & GM. “These awards are a celebration of the incredible work of our employees and their dedication to our fans and our region, and we thank Major League Soccer for the recognition.”
St. Louis CITY SC leads the League with four awards at the Club level (out of 14 Club awards total), following an inaugural season that saw CITY SC recognized as the League’s “Marketing Team of the Year” and “Corporate Partnership Activation of the Year” for its work on Purina Club – the first permanent, dedicated pet-friendly space in an MLS stadium.
Marisa Colaiano Community Impact Club of the Year
The GOAL: Zero initiative is CITY SC’s pledge to reach zero-waste status (more than 90% of CITYPARK’s waste diverted away from landfill) at all first-team matches and educate its audiences on the circular life of food and plastic waste in CITYPARK and how to reduce its impact on the environment, leading the way for increased recycling, composting, and other waste reduction and sustainability practices throughout St. Louis. Goal: ZERO educates and inspires staff, fans, and the general community about the environmental impacts of single-use plastics and how to reduce landfill waste.
By the end of the 2024 season, the club had diverted a season average of 90.3% away from the landfill by composting over 48 tons of waste and recycling 24 tons of materials and 20 tons of aluminum produced from 21 MLS matches. Goal: ZERO also diverted over 600,000 plastic bottles and containers from the landfill.
Match Presentation Team of the Year
Every match at CITYPARK is a 5-hour choreographed festival of civic pride that fuses sport and culture by celebrating the best of St. Louis through local food, music, art & entertainment. Beginning two hours before kickoff, fans enjoy the CITY Block Party on the plaza featuring live music, local food, partner activations and family-friendly entertainment. Once inside the stadium, they take in an action-packed, 90-minute pre-game show that combines a preview of the match with local spotlights that build civic pride. Pre-match rituals include matchball delivery, celebrity guests, an immersive hype video and the signature “CITY Red-out” as 22,500 fans chant “S-T-L” in unison, contributing to one of the most electrifying experiences in sport – all before kickoff.
This year, pre-match festivities featured 58 performances from live musicians – including five emerging local “Homegrown” artists as part of a collaboration between the club and St. Louis native and rapper Smino – 118 interviews with St. Louis guests, 21 local restaurants and 1,620 minutes of scripted pre-game shows.
Digital Activation of the Year
Tackle the Struggle launched as a digital campaign for fans, players and front office to speak openly about their mental health struggles and tools they’ve used to find help. Featuring excerpts from club captain and star Goalkeeper Roman Bürki, Director of DEIB Kristin Mosley and the late Mike Otten, Director of Security, who was a tireless advocate for mental health, the platform delivered ongoing empathy, insight and educational tools directly to fans across CITY SC’s website, social channels and mobile app. The campaign was headlined by Mental Health Awareness Night at CITYPARK in May 2024, where fans and staff were encouraged to prioritize mental health in their daily lives. Tackle the Struggle generated buzz and culminated with an editorial piece from Roman Bürki in The Player’s Tribune, speaking about his personal journey with mental health.
Security Club of the Year
The Security Club of the Year Award recognizes a club that has performed at a consistently high level throughout the season, taking into consideration the volume of incidents, effectiveness of incident follow ups, use and integration of technology, collaboration with internal and external delivery partners, and a holistic approach to managing risk and ensuring the safety of the events while maintaining an exceptional level of guest service.
CITY SC’s operations and security teams strive to be an excellent club and neighbor by ensuring that CITYPARK is a safe, clean, family friendly facility. They work closely alongside the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, St. Louis County Police Department, St. Charles County Police Department, St. Louis Fire Department, private security firms CSC, Hudson, and Accucare Event Medical and internal Guest Experience team to ensure the safety of all guests in and around CITYPARK, including first team matches, CITY2 matches, and public and private events. When CITY SC Director of Security Mike Otten unexpectedly passed away in the middle of the season, the security team and club staff ensured security standards continued to be upheld at the highest level for the remainder of the season.
