Saint Louis University will be the site for a different kind of soccer match this weekend.
The St. Louis Athletica will host the Los Angeles Sol at Robert R. Hermann stadium this Saturday at 3 p.m. in a regular season Women’s Professional Soccer match.
Saturday’s match will be just the third ever contest for the newly founded St. Louis Athletica, who currently stand at 0-2. The Athletica is one of seven founding teams that comprise the WPS.
“Several months ago [The Athletica] reached out to our athletic program through Tim Champion, our women’s soccer coach, and we jumped at the opportunity to make this event available to the community,” SLU Athletic Director Chris May said.
The St. Louis Athletica play the rest of their home games on the campus of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
According to Athletica Director of Communications Tony Hubert, a prior scheduling conflict forced the Athletica to seek out an alternative site for their contest against the Sol. SIUE will host a track meet on Saturday, so the Athletica were forced to find an alternative location. Incidentally, SLU will attend this aforementioned track meet, the SIUE Cougar Twilight Open.
Despite being forced to play away from home, Hubert said there are some advantages to playing on the campus at SLU.
Hubert also said the Athletica chose Robert R. Hermann stadium because of its ideal location and high quality facilities.
“It allows us to be closer to downtown and closer to our population center,” Hubert said.
SLU’s venue also has a higher capacity than the stadium at SIUE.
Saturday’s game will provide the Athletica with the opportunity to be exposed to the sports fans of St. Louis from a more ideal location.
But there are several positive aspects on SLU’s end of the deal as well, including a chance to display the campus’ facilities.
“It’s an opportunity for SLU to open our doors and let people in. When you have a pro team that wants to come
in and use what we consider our high quality facilities, it gives us a chance to showcase them,” May said.
A similar opportunity to display SLU’s facilities occurred April 18 and 19. On these days, thousands of participants in the Go! St. Louis Marathon descended on Chaifetz Arena to pick up race-day information and packets. It gave everyone present a firsthand exposure to SLU’s new arena.
Champion acknowledged that the WPS match on Saturday will also be an opportunity to capitalize in terms of recruiting for the Billiken women’s soccer team.
“The game will be televised, which means that people will see our stadium. If they can see the campus and the facilities here, then it should help us in recruiting,” Champion said.
The Billiken women’s soccer team will attend the game, and Champion said it will expose them to a high caliber of women’s soccer.
“It will be a good experience for them. Some of the players on our team have played against some of these [professional] players we will watch,” Champion said.
Several women’s soccer players at SLU are contemplating playing professionally. So watching the Athletica-Sol game will be especially important for these players as they ponder their future. Champion said that many of his players deliberate between some sort of graduate school or professional soccer, and the decision can be a tough one.
“I’m not sure if the interest is there but the talent is there. I think it’s just a matter of choice at this point. [WPS] is a good league, but you have to decide if you want to pursue a professional career or something else,” Champion said.
Additionally, the game will showcase a league of increasing popularity.
Junior women’s soccer player Lauren Bozesky agreed with her coach.
“For girls who want to continue and try to play for Athletica, it’s a chance to compare yourself to players out there. It’s fun to watch the highest level of competition for women’s soccer. Supposedly it’s the best league in the world-and having the game being played at SLU it’s a really good way to showcase the progress that’s happening with women’s soccer,” Bozesky said.
Relay for Life will also occur at the same location on Saturday, but Champion said that this wouldn’t be an issue for the WPS match. Relay for Life is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., three hours after kickoff.
This fixture will most likely be a one-time occasion, according to Hubert. But May said he would welcome similar contests in the future if the opportunity is presented.
“Part of our goal is determining how we can reach out to the community-this is one of those events,” May said. “It’s an opportunity to reach out, connect to the community and let everyone know what Saint Louis University is all about.”
Hubert said that he expects the crowd size for the game on Saturday to be similar to a SLU men’s soccer match.
Tickets cost $12 and can be bought at the gates of Robert R. Hermann Stadium.
