On the latest episode of La Previa, hosts Asli Pelit and Boris Gartner talk to Diego Gigliani, the president and general manager of St. Louis City SC.
Originally from Argentina, Gigliani joined St. Louis City after a decade with City Football Group, the parent company of Premier League’s Manchester City and MLS’ New York City FC. In his most recent role, Gigliani oversaw eight of CFG’s clubs, including all of the ones in the European Union and Latin America. “The clubs I managed were much closer within a soccer ecosystem to the MLS than to Man City,” Gigliani said. “And I saw what everyone in the world of soccer sees, which is a league (MLS) that grows every year.”
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St. Louis was granted a franchise for an expansion fee of $200 million in 2018. The investment group is led by Carolyn Kindle along with other members of the Taylor family, which founded rental car behemoth Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
“The origin story is fascinating and relevant at a local level,” said Gigliani, who joined the team three months ago. “They [the Taylor family] are not lifelong soccer fans; they did not grow up dreaming about lifting trophies. They simply wanted to bring a soccer franchise to their city for the people, to retain people in this city and to attract more business.”
The club plays its home games at CityPark, a 22,500-seat soccer-specific stadium built by the Taylor family without using public funds. According to Gigliani, in addition to the stadium, the family aims to revive the downtown with retail and residential projects around the stadium district, which includes a practice facility and team headquarters, all within the same 30-plus acre urban campus.
One of the few majority-female-led ownership groups in all of professional sports, St. Louis City made its debut when the 28th season of MLS kicked off last February. The team finished its first season as the leader of the Western Conference, above established franchises like LAFC and the Seattle Sounders. They’ll now compete for the postseason title.
“When I think about the future, I always think about it from two perspectives,” said Gigliani. “The first is for the club, and the second is for the competition. Because unlike my role in other clubs in the past, that second is crucial here.”
Next, Pelit and Gartner discussed the impact of Inter Miami co-owner and former soccer star David Beckham’s docuseries on Netflix. Beckham was influential in Argentina star Lionel Messi’s historic transfer to MLS, and he’s been in the spotlight since Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami. The four-part Beckham documentary was released a week before Messi’s docuseries on Apple.
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