ST. LOUIS — As fans gear up for the first soccer match at St. Louis CITY SC CITYPARK Wednesday, they won’t want to miss exploring the variety of food and drinks, self-serving kiosks and other amenities at the new stadium.

Dubbed the “most intimate and elevated experience in the stadium,” the Pitch Club is a seating and gathering area that leads to the entrance of the soccer field. It can hold 450 guests, according to Matt Sebek, chief experience officer for St Louis CITY SC.

The Pitch Club has tables, booths, televisions and a huge projection screen where guests can order a variety of tapas, canapés and other snacks.

“This is a really nice gathering space, certainly for the match itself, but pre- and post-game as well,” Sebek said. 

The stadium holds 22,500 seats, according to Sebek. The soccer field is made up of bermuda grass, which has full heat and cooling underneath to accommodate the weather during the regular season that runs from March through October.

The Together Credit Union Club level can hold about 1,000 guests. The area contains 52 different food and beverage experiences that includes food offered by award-winning chef Gerard Craft, Sebek said. He noted that the Together Credit Union Club has the most food offerings in major league soccer.

For fans not wanting to stand in long lines to order food, they can download and order through STL CITY SC mobile app.

Anywhere fans see a City Go sign, mobile ordering is available and there are dedicated areas to pick up mobile orders, according to Sebek.

Other amenities include walkout markets and self-service kiosks. The walkout markets are areas where guests can enter by scanning their credit card or phone and grab food and drinks monitored by camera tracking technology and censors.

Sebek said people can get in and out in 30 seconds.

“That ability for us to open a new venue, but to think about how do we use technology to spread lines out and really meet fans where they are, so we’re really proud about that mix of high touch and high tech,” he said.

Sebek added that the walkout markets have been trialed on a limited capacity at other stadiums, but CITYPARK will be the first stadium to open with them.

City Goods is the team store where fans can buy apparel. Inaugural jerseys will be released on Wednesday and presale orders for them have already broken presale records in major league soccer, according to Sebek.

The Ultra Club is a large enclosed space at the top of the stadium where roughly 900 guests can get custom food during the game. The area also can be rented out for large gatherings, such as meetings, company parties, weddings and other functions.

The ceiling of the Ultra Club has LED screens in between the lights to create imagery and messaging that can be displayed at night.

“Just little touches that are kind of making it a little bit of a unique space, trying to give it some intimacy when we need it or the performance of the stage on match day,” said Lee Broughton, chief brand architect for St. Louis City SC.

Outside of the stadium in the southwest plaza, visitors will notice hourglass-shaped pillars, which are part of the “Pillars of the Valley” art exhibit that pays tribute to the former predominantly Black neighborhood, Mill Creek Valley, that was there long before the stadium.

The neighborhood was demolished in 1959 because of urban development. St. Louis CITY SC partnered with the Great Rivers Greenway, Harris-Stowe University, Counterpublic 2023 Civic Art Exhibition and STLMADE artist Damon Davis to honor the neighborhood and the 20,000 residents who lived there, including prominent figures Josephine Baker and Scott Joplin.  

For more information about CITYPARK, click here.