“We don't have beaches here or mountains, but we do sports really well.” Marc Schreiber, president, St. Louis Sports Commission

By Craig Kaminer / Portrait by Suzy Gorman / all other photos St. Louis Sports Commission / David Preston

If you’re a sports fanatic, living in St. Louis is heaven. We're rarely thought of as a boom town for economic or population growth, but when it comes to sports history, great teams, NCAA competitions, and sportsmanship, few — if any — cities compare.  Walk the streets or the airport and you’ll see a large percentage of folks wearing team gear. When you’re out of town, it’s easy to spot a St. Louis fan sporting a t-shirt, jersey, cap, or scarf. And they are not always from St. Louis, but grew up loyal to one of the city's teams.

For many years, St. Louis was one of the few with a sports commission. Now, following the model established here, most cities have one. The goal is to use the power of sports to enhance the area’s quality of life and to create economic and social benefits for the community. Other sports commissions in other communities get some form of support from their public sectors. Sometimes that will come from the city or county or state government. Sometimes it'll come from their visitors bureau. Sometimes it'll come from the local Chamber of Commerce. Not in St. Louis.

“Our model in St. Louis is an independent, privately funded organization,” Marc Schreiber, the president of the St. Louis Sports Commission said. “So it's the corporate community, the business community here in St. Louis which supports us and generates and provides the resources necessary for us to do our work on behalf of the community and the region.” The Sports Commission operates on a $1.8-million annual budget.

“Essentially, economic development is what the commission does,” he explained. “And that's important to the corporate community that is trying to recruit and retain talent. They want to ensure that St. Louis is an active, vibrant region that has offerings that enrich and enhance the quality of life.”

In January 2023, Schreiber, 49, succeeded his long-time boss and mentor, Frank Viverito. A St. Louis native, Schreiber grew up loving sports.

“I was always one of those people who knew very early on what I wanted to do,” he said. “I wanted to go into sports broadcasting and be the next Bob Costas. Bob was my idol growing up. So I pursued a broadcast journalism career. On one hand, I wanted to go into sports broadcasting, but there was also this attraction to doing something good for St. Louis.”

When the 10-day U.S. Olympic Festival was held here in 1994, Schreiber signed up. “The Sports Commission was established in 1989, but it was the organization's first really big event,” he said. “So I volunteered for that and just was hooked on what it meant for the region and how much it energized the community. So that was my introduction into what the Sports Commission does. And from that point, it was sort of the entrée to wanting to connect to the organization.”

The following summer Schreiber interned for the St. Louis Sports Commission and he was assigned to write the organization's newsletter. Toward the end of his internship, Frank Viverito was named president, so Schreiber had to interview and write a story about the man who would ultimately be his boss for 25 years. After graduating from Northwestern in the summer of 1998, Schreiber got a second internship that led to a full-time job with the Sports Commission. “And the rest is history.”

According to Schreiber, financial, venue, and destination are the top three factors that determine where an event's going to go. “And that financial piece is very much a challenge,” he said.

When you tally up revenues from the Cardinals, the Blues, CITY SC and then the Sports Commission’s events on top of it, the economic benefit to St. Louis is in the billions of dollars.

When the SLSC staff is out pursuing an event, they talk about how great of a sports town and sports community St. Louis is.

“One of the things we love to say is that we'll put St. Louis's sports history up against any community,” Schreiber said. “There's such a rich tradition and rich history over time that manifests into the connection that St. Louisans have with their teams. With sports here, there’s a psychic and economic benefit. Both are significant, and it's a story that we share with our community all the time just to talk about the power sports have had in St. Louis. It comes back to unifying this region in a way that few other things can. It comes down to an identity that we have.”

“We don't have beaches here or mountains, but we do sports really well.”

The key to the St. Louis Sports Commission’s success is the quality and number of special events coming here. But it does more than that.

“It's one of those things that's able to unify St. Louis, and it is a model of what we can accomplish when we're able to attract a major event,” Schreiber said. “Whether that was the Final Four back in 2005 or the SEC basketball championship in 2018, or the PGA championship in 2018, the Frozen Four, the All-Star games that we've had, the NHL Winter Classic, the dozens and dozens of high-profile NCAA championships we've hosted, the Olympic trials that we've done— they serve as a model for how we can come together and do big things that make an impact and bring vibrancy to the region, excite residents, and really cast St. Louis in a very positive spotlight nationally.” 

But as sports have grown, so has the competition for each and every event. “It just becomes much more difficult, more of a challenge for us to be successful just because we're going up against so many other cities for any given event.”

The rules have changed since what is considered the heyday of sports events here in the 2000’s. “The Final Four is a little more of a stretch for us now because it's hard for our dome to compete with its newer counterparts across the country,” Schreiber said, adding that they are still on the hunt for high-profile NCAA championships and Olympic sports events.

“We go up against other markets that are very aggressive financially and we have more limited resources,” Schreiber said. “But, we're very fortunate with the Enterprise Center and the recent renovations that were done there. So that building is at the top of its game. We can put Enterprise Center up against any of its competitive set of venues. We have an outstanding new facility right behind us in CITY PARK, so that's terrific.

“It would be tremendously helpful if we had support from our local public sector. And what I mean by that specifically is the city and county.”

The hunt for more events goes on. “We just submitted our bids for NCAA Championships for 2026 thru 2028,” Schreiber said. “We have bids in for the NCAA Wrestling Championships, the Women's Volleyball Championship and Men’s and Women's Basketball, the NCAA Gymnastics Championships and a few other events besides those. We're waiting to hear about the U.S. Figure Skating Championships for 2026. I would love to see us be able to do a Missouri versus Illinois football game again, at the Dome. They have a series that's on campus from 2026 through 2029. I would love to see us figure out a way to get one or more of those games to our community.

“We're awaiting word on bids for the US Gymnastics Championships,” he continued. “So you start to see this whole breadth of events that are out there and on the national landscape that we want to try to attract to St. Louis.”

But what's ahead? “I think the big opportunity is the growth of women's sports,” Schreiber said. “I'd love to see us land the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship. It's the highest profile NCAA championship we've yet to host.”

When asked about if there is an NBA, WNBA, or NFL team on the horizon, Schreiber thinks not. “But at the moment, by all means, we're doing darn well. When you have the four teams, the Cardinals, Blues, City SC and the Battlehawks all operating at the level they are, that's pretty phenomenal.”

He added that in terms of motorsports, World Wide Technology Raceway is flourishing. “While we may not get F1 anytime soon, the focus right now is making sure the existing events – NASCAR, IndyCar, and NHRA are successful,” he said. “It's the only track in America that hosts all three circuits. There's no one else that has that.”

What the SLSC does is tremendously important to the fabric of this region.

“We're focusing on where we can have the greatest value to the community,” Schreiber added. “For us, that's the attraction of events, the creation and production of an event like the Musial Awards, the work that our foundation does to promote sportsmanship in the community, and what we can do to celebrate our Olympic legacy as America’s first Olympic city. “

“We get recognized as having the best fans in baseball. As Bob Costas said, St. Louis fans stand out with their combination of passion and civility,” Schreiber said. “A lot of pride comes from that. You're told, on one hand, this may be flyover country, but then on the other hand we are saluted for our sports, sportsmanship, and civility.  Being a great sports town with great fans, well, we latch onto that narrative as the thing that represents our identity and puts St. Louis in a very positive light.”

Everyone loves seeing the Cardinals on the bat, the flag on the musical note of the Blues, the tinge of pink in the CITY SC logo.

“I think there's something really special when you're flying back to St. Louis and there's going to be several people on that flight who have Cardinal’s or CITY SC or Blues stuff on,” Schreiber said. “We wear it on our chests and sleeves. That's not so true of other places, and that's the identity that represents us, and it's a very positive thing, and it's emblematic of the pride that St. Louisans have in their community.…

“You hear that all the time, that St. Louisans have this inferiority complex, they're apologizing for stuff, but we don't do that with sports,” Schreiber said. “It's the thing that makes us feel good about this as our hometown — and that's an important powerful thing.”