AC St. Louis
Encyclopedia
Athletic Club of St. Louis, commonly referred to as AC St. Louis, was an American professional soccer team based in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Founded in December 2009, the team played its first and only season the next year in the NASL Conference of the temporary USSF D2 Pro League, the second tier of the American Soccer Pyramid
American Soccer Pyramid
The United States soccer pyramid is a term used in soccer to describe the structure of the league system in the United States. The country's governing body for the sport, the United States Soccer Federation , oversees the system but does not operate any of its component leagues—with one temporary...

. With plans to join the new North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League (2010)
The North American Soccer League is a professional men's soccer league in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico which began league play on April 9, 2011. It has been provisionally sanctioned as the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, behind Major League Soccer in the...

 the following season, the club folded in January 2011 under unmanageable financial strain.

St. Louis played its home games at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park
Anheuser-Busch Center
The Anheuser-Busch Center, also known as Soccer Park, is located in Fenton, Missouri, a suburb southwest of downtown St. Louis. It was the home field of A.C. St. Louis. Opening in 1982 as the St. Louis Soccer Park, the Anheuser-Busch Center has been the home to regional sporting events at the...

 in nearby Fenton, Missouri
Fenton, Missouri
Fenton is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, and a suburb of St. Louis. The population was 4,022 at the 2010 census.-History:Due to its proximity to fertile land and the Meramec River, the Fenton area has been inhabited for over 1,000 years...

. The team's colors were green, white, and yellow. St. Louis was first coached by Claude Anelka
Claude Anelka
Claude Anelka is a former French football manager, who was most recently the head coach of AC St. Louis. He is the older brother of professional footballer Nicolas Anelka, who currently plays in the Premier League with Chelsea....

, the older brother of French international striker Nicolas Anelka
Nicolas Anelka
Abdul-Salam Bilal on 14 March 1979) is a French international footballer, who plays as a striker for English Premier League club Chelsea. Anelka was also a regular starter for the French national team...

; however, he was replaced by Dale Schilly
Dale Schilly
Dale Schilly is the head coach of A.C. St Louis. He holds a USSF "A" coaching license.Upon his appointment Schilly said: "It is particularly exciting to coach in my hometown, and to create an environment that people want to be a part of."He attended Rosary High School.-Florida International...

 midway through the club's only season.

The men's team was one of three parts of the sports club owned by St. Louis-native Jeff Cooper. Saint Louis Athletica of Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer is the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded 6 teams for the 2011 season, with continued plans for future expansion...

, folding in 2010, and a large youth soccer league throughout the metropolitan area were the other components of AC St. Louis.

History

The origins of A.C. St. Louis lie in Jeff Cooper's bid to land a Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...

 expansion team
Expansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...

. With his investment group St. Louis Soccer United (SLSU), Cooper twice attempted to bring MLS to the St. Louis metropolitan area only to have both bids turned down in favor of other cities in 2008 and 2009. Despite approved stadium plans to build the Collinsville Soccer Complex
Collinsville Soccer Complex
Collinsville Soccer Complex, also known as The Fields was a planned soccer-centered development to be located in Collinsville, Illinois, United States. The centerpiece of the complex was a 18,500-seat soccer-specific stadium that would have been the home stadium for professional soccer clubs in...

 in suburban Collinsville, Illinois
Collinsville, Illinois
Collinsville is a city located mainly in Madison County, and partially in St. Clair County, both in Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 26,016. Collinsville is approximately 12 miles from St. Louis, Missouri and is considered part of that city's Metro-East area...

, MLS was not impressed with the bid's financial backing and suggested Cooper expand his group of investors. As the price of the expansion fee rose, Cooper refocused his efforts to building a second division club.

USSF D2 Pro League

This involved Cooper selling a majority interest to brothers Heemal and Sanjeev Vaid in the fall of 2009. By November SLSU changed its name to the Athletic Club of St. Louis with their new men's team AC St. Louis. Also announced was their intent to become co-founders of the new North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League (2010)
The North American Soccer League is a professional men's soccer league in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico which began league play on April 9, 2011. It has been provisionally sanctioned as the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, behind Major League Soccer in the...

 formed from teams breaking away from the established United Soccer Leagues
United Soccer Leagues
The United Soccer Leagues is the organizer of several soccer leagues with teams in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It includes men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Leagues currently organized are the USL Pro, the USL Premier Development League, the W-League, and...

. After filed lawsuits and heated press statements between the two conflicting leagues, the USSF declared neither league would be sanctioned for the coming year, and ordered both to work together on a plan to temporarily allow their teams to play a 2010 season. On January 7, 2010, the interim solution was announced to be the new USSF D2 Professional League comprising clubs from both USL and NASL.

In February 2010, AC St. Louis announced that Steve Ralston
Steve Ralston
Steve Ralston is a retired American soccer player and a current assistant coach for the Houston Dynamo.-Professional:...

 – MLS career leader in games played, minutes played, and assists – would become the first player ever to officially sign with the club. The rest of the roster was primarily filled out lower division signees and former college players.

After a successful launch in April, the club fell into financial trouble by May 2010 when the Vaid brothers pulled out of funding both AC St. Louis and St. Louis Athletica. Despite Cooper resuming financial control of the teams, Athletica was unable to be saved. Other cost cutting measures included selling Ralston's contract back to the New England Revolution
New England Revolution
The New England Revolution is an American professional association football club based in Foxborough, Massachusetts which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada...

 and negotiating contract buyouts of players who did not reside in the St. Louis area. AC St. Louis finished the season second to last in both their conference and league.
During the following off season, Cooper sought to sell the club to keep it financially afloat. However, despite his best efforts to secure the long-term future of the club, AC St. Louis folded in January 2011.

Colors and badge

The inverted shield features a fleur-de-lis
Fleur-de-lis
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...

 with a golden flame beneath a catenary arch. The fleur-de-lis, a long time symbol of the city featured heavily in the region's iconography
Iconography of St. Louis, Missouri
The Iconography of St. Louis, Missouri is strongly informed by the city's French and German heritages, physical features, and place in American history.-Mound City:...

, was a symbol of French monarchs including Louis IX of France
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...

, for whom the city is named. The flame alludes to the 1904 Summer Olympics
1904 Summer Olympics
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from 1 July 1904, to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University...

 which were held in St. Louis as part of the St. Louis World's Fair, and is seen by many St. Louisans to be one of the formative events in the city's history. The arch represents the Gateway Arch
Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch, or Gateway to the West, is an arch that is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States...

, which was built in 1965 as a memorial to the city's placement in American history as the "Gateway to the West." A.C. is an homage to the Missouri Athletic Club
Missouri Athletic Club
The Missouri Athletic Club , founded in 1903, is a traditional gentlemen's club and athletic club in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, USA, with a separate athletic campus in the St. Louis County suburb of Town and Country. The MAC awards the annual Hermann Trophy, the highest award in American...

, which has promoted soccer in the region for more than 100 years.

On February 11, 2010 the team announced it had entered into an agreement with Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

 upon a multi-year apparel and footwear sponsorship. The team's color scheme was green, gold, and white.

Supporters

The St. Louligans grew out of the multiple supporters groups already established in the St. Louis and surrounding areas. The fans united under this one banner while also keeping their individual identities as groups alive. They comprised the "Seven Nation Army" of the St. Louligans supporters movement, with those being Chickenhead, Day Pints Club, Eads Brigade, Henry Shaw Collective, Laclede's Army, River City Saints and United Knights.

Final roster

This list is a historical record of the final group of players on the last ACSTL roster for their final game in 2010. Source:

Staff

Dale Schilly
Dale Schilly
Dale Schilly is the head coach of A.C. St Louis. He holds a USSF "A" coaching license.Upon his appointment Schilly said: "It is particularly exciting to coach in my hometown, and to create an environment that people want to be a part of."He attended Rosary High School.-Florida International...

 Head Coach John van Buskirk
John van Buskirk
John van Buskirk is a US football coach and a former player. He was a standout for his high school team in Granite City where he won two state championships. One as team captain his senior year. After high school John went to play for Indiana University. With Indiana his team reached the #1...

 Assistant Coach Tim Leonard Assistant Coach Blake Decker Assistant Coach Tim Owens General Manager Paul Rogers Goalkeeper Coach

Notable former players

This list of former players includes those who received international caps while playing for the team, made significant contributions to the team in terms of appearances or goals while playing for the team, or who made significant contributions to the sport either before they played for the team, or after they left. It is clearly not yet complete and all inclusive, and additions and refinements will continue to be made over time.
Steve Ralston
Steve Ralston
Steve Ralston is a retired American soccer player and a current assistant coach for the Houston Dynamo.-Professional:...

(2010)

Year-by-year

Year Division League Regular Season Playoffs Open Cup Avg. Attendance
2010 2 USSF Division 2 5th, NASL (11th) Did not qualify 3rd Round 2,750

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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