Saint Louis Athletica is one of the founding franchises of the WPS. The franchise was officially “born” on February 27th, 2007. On that date Saint Louis Soccer United LLC, under the leadership of Jeff Cooper, signed a letter of intent to become a charter member of the new league.
The story of the new Women’s Professional Soccer League dates back to 2004. In July of that year a summit was held in New York City to examine the demise of the previous women’s professional league (WUSA). Executives associated with the sport met to discuss lessons learned from the failure of the WUSA and what the best path forward might be to launch a new and more viable women’s soccer league. Out of that summit emerged the Women’s Soccer Initiative, Inc. (WSII). The role of WSII was to encourage and create a world-class women’s professional soccer league.
In February of 2005 The U.S. Soccer Federation and U.S. Soccer Foundation each provided operational grants to WSII to assist in supporting WSII’s efforts to develop a viable business model and bring back women’s professional soccer.
Two years later in September of 2007, under the working title Women’s Soccer LLC, the soon-to-be WPS was able to be officially formed with seven investor groups and Tonya Antonucci was named as the league’s first commissioner.
By late summer of 2008 the teams were beginning to take shape. Shortly after the Olympic Games in Beijing Jeff Cooper was able to secure the services of Brazil’s silver medal winning head coach Jorge Barcellos.
On September 16 members of the United States Women’s National Team player pool were allocated to the seven founding franchises. Saint Louis would be allocated our own hometown hero and Olympic Gold Medalist Lori Chalupny, as well as her Olympic teammate Hope Solo. Solo, when given three choices as to where she wanted to play only listed one city…St. Louis. Tina Ellertson, a member of the United States 2007 World Cup team was also allocated to Saint Louis.
That September also saw the WPS hold the draft for international players and Saint Louis was able to choose the Brazilian star Daniela Alves. Saint Louis was also able to acquire the outstanding international players Eniola Aluko of England, Sara Larsson of Sweden and Melissa Tancredi of Canada.
The general player draft in October of 2008 saw Saint Louis select Angie Woznuk and Amanda Cinalli. And finally in January of 2009 Saint Louis was able to select the two-time MAC Hermann Award Winner, Kerri Hanks, with the 6th overall pick in the collegiate draft.
The name Saint Louis Athletica was formally announced at a press conference at the Missouri Athletic Club in November of 2008. On that date the official logo for Saint Louis was also unveiled, an image of Joan of Arc astride a stallion carrying on flag. The name Athletica was conceived by Kip Thompson, one of the coaches in St. Louis Soccer United’s youth ranks, and immediately agreed on as the club’s new moniker.