St. Louis CITY SC continues to make soccer accessible for all: With partner American Family Insurance builds four new mini soccer pitches across the St. Louis region

St. Louis CITY SC is continuing to deliver on its goal of making soccer accessible to all. The club and its partners American Family Insurance and the U.S. Soccer Foundation have completed four more mini-pitches in the St. Louis region, located in Ferguson, Black Jack, Cahokia Heights and at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis. CITY SC celebrated the unveiling of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center mini-pitch at an event Nov. 21 featuring CITY SC CEO Carolyn Kindle, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and CITY SC players Akil Watts, Rasmus Alm and Ben Lundt.

American Family Insurance began a partnership with St. Louis CITY in March 2023 and shares their commitment to supporting and connecting with local communities through the building of mini-pitches, a tangible investment that makes soccer more accessible to all. To date, CITY SC has opened six Mini-Pitch Systems™ across the region and is more than halfway to its goal of building 11 mini-pitches by the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“As part of being an exceptional club and neighbor, we believe it is important to work with community partners to make soccer accessible to everyone in the region,” said Kindle. “These mini-pitches have wide-ranging impact – they help us strengthen and unite communities, encourage families to have fun playing together, and provide safe places for kids to play and learn the sport.”

Mini-pitches are small, customized, hard-court surfaces that are well suited for both organized soccer and pickup games. They help revitalize underresourced areas and are an extension of the CITY SC’s CITY Futures platform, which provides high-quality, no-cost community training and education programs to promote soccer in the region for both players and coaches and to help invest in the community through soccer. Musco Lighting, the club’s stadium lighting partner and creator of the Mini-Pitch System™, is installing the mini-pitches.

In addition to mini-pitch events organized and staffed by CITY SC community coaches, the club launched its Street Soccer program this year to host tournaments and clinics at the mini-pitches, providing opportunities for regional kids to learn the game and play in competitive matches.

“We’re thrilled to continue to open new mini-pitches that will provide more safe places to play with CITY SC, American Family Insurance, and Musco Lighting,” said Ed Foster-Simeon, president and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation. “These spaces will enable more young people to play and benefit from our game, connect with peers and coach-mentors, and learn skills that will serve them well in the school and throughout life.”

CITY SC’s completed mini-pitches to date are:

·       St. Louis City: DeSoto Park

·       Fairmont City, Ill.: Granby Park

·       Ferguson, Mo.: Plaza at 501

·       Cahokia Heights, Ill.: Cahokia Park

·       Black Jack, Mo.: Harold J. Evangelista Park

·       East St. Louis, Ill.: Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center

“CITY Futures remains one of the club’s most important programs, as it is intended to not only teach kids soccer, but the social and emotional skills that will help them in all aspects of their life,” said Kindle. “The new mini-pitches and the programming and instruction our coaches develop to encourage their use is something we are extremely proud of.”

Designed to promote soccer and make the sport more accessible across the region, CITY Futures has provided instruction or training to approximately 4,500 kids across the region since the initiative launched in 2022.  As part of the effort, CITY SC has recruited and trained nearly 50 community coaches who have coordinated more than more than 500 clinics, camps and training sessions.

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About the American Family Insurance Group 
American Family Insurance Group, a mutual holding company based in Madison, Wis., has been serving customers since 1927. We inspire, protect and restore dreams through our insurance products, exceptional service from our agency owners and employees, community investments and creative partnerships. American Family Insurance Group is the nation’s 12th-largest property/casualty insurance group, ranking No. 243 on the Fortune 500 list. The Group has a current ‘a+’ credit rating through AM Best, and has distinction as a “Standing the Test of Time” company, which is represented by having an AM Best financial strength rating of ‘A’ or better for 75 years. The group sells American Family-brand products, primarily through exclusive agency owners in 19 states. The American Family Insurance Group also includes CONNECT, powered by American Family Insurance, The General, Homesite and Main Street America Insurance and has approximately 12,000 employees nationwide.

About St. Louis CITY SC
St. Louis CITY SC, one of the few majority female-led ownership groups in all of professional sports, is Major League Soccer’s 28th expansion team and plays at CITYPARK, an STLMade 22,500-seat world-class soccer-specific stadium. CITYPARK is part of a new world-class stadium district, which includes a practice facility, team store and team headquarters all within the same 30+ acre urban campus in downtown St. Louis to help further the region’s continued growth and revitalization. St. Louis CITY SC’s vision is to be an exceptional club and neighbor that brings people together through the power of sports. CITYPARK officially will be known as Energizer Park beginning January 1, 2025.