The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UGA football
‘Once it became clear that the vehicle was purposefully fleeing, I turned off my vehicle’s emergency lights, reduced my speed and discontinued my attempt to stop the vehicle.’ Adam Hubbard An officer with the university’s police force
When season tickets sales began for Major League Soccer’s newest team, St. Louis City SC leaders figured they’d be a hot ticket in a city with a deep love for the sport.
Even they were caught off guard by the response: More than 60,000 deposits for the 19,000 available season passes.
“St. Louisans are so proud of their city and so supportive of anything like this,” team President and CEO Carolyn Kindle said. “I had no idea how crazy that support was going to go.”
Seven years ago, the NFL’S Rams departed for Los Angeles after making the case that St. Louis wasn’t big enough and lacked the corporate support for three pro sports franchises. Soccer fans beg to differ.
The privately built, 22,500-seat, $458 million Citypark Stadium is spurring new development in the western area of downtown. Team merchandise sales ranked in the top five in MLS in 2022 — before the team played a game.
The franchise-opener is Saturday in Austin, Texas. The first home game is March 4 against Charlotte.
“It’s a big thing for the city, not just for soccer,” said Dave Lange, a St. Louis soccer historian. “There’s a lot of pent-up enthusiasm.”
MLS Commissioner Don Garber said he believed the loss of the Rams “helped energize the community to get behind a sport they love.”
“In order to be successful in sports you need to have a devoted, committed owner, you need to have a great facility, and you need to have a market that really loves and understands the game,” Garber said. “We have all three of those in place now.”
Lange, author of “Soccer Made in St. Louis: A History of the Game in America’s First Soccer Capital,” said the first record of soccer play in St. Louis was in 1872. European immigrants brought the love of the game with them, and passed it down.
Soccer bec ame the sport of choice in the region’s Catholic schools and it flourished. Five St. Louis residents started for the 1950 World Cup team that pulled off what is still recognized as one of the sport’s greatest upsets, a 1-0 defeat of England. St. Louis University became a soccer powerhouse, winning 10 national championships.
Even indoor soccerwaspopular. The St. Louis Steamers arrived in 1979 and played to sellout crowds. Lange recalled how he could feel the old arena shaking during many games. “The noise and passion levels were incredible,” he said.
Amid that backdrop, it was perhaps surprising it took so long for St. Louis to land in the MLS. In fact, a 2017 effort to get a team failed when voters turned down a ballot measure to help fund a new stadium.
Ayear later, Kindle recalledhow her uncle, Andy Taylor, called a family meeting to discuss soccer. Taylor is executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings, the nation’s largest car rental company. He is the son of founder Jack Taylor. Kindle is Jack Taylor’s granddaughter.
Kindle said her previous connection with soccer ended when she played on her eighth grade “C” ously injured. Offensive lineman Warren Mcclendon, 21, was treated at a hospital and released.
The incident leading to Dumas-johnson’s arrest began about 8 p.m. Jan. 10, shortly after the team had returned to Athens from Los Angeles, where it had defeated Texas Christian to win the College Football Playoff Championship game. Dumas-johnson, a leader of Georgia’s highly regarded defensive unit who started every game at middle linebacker last season, was credited with four tackles in the title game.
An officer with theuniversity’s police force, Adam Hubbard, observed two Dodge Chargers stopped at an intersection on UGA’S East Campus. When the light turned green, Hubbard wrote in a report, both cars spun their tires and began racing along College Station Road, an area that is home to dorms, classroom buildings team. But she and the rest of her and a campus visitors’ center. family recognized the potential Hubbard pursued the cars, that MLS could bring to St. Louis he wrote, but could not catch and sought a meeting with Garber. up to them, even as he accel
The league wanted proof of erated to about 75 mph. corporate support so the Taylors One of the Chargers turned reached out to 25 of the region’s onto the Outer 10 Loop, an largest companies. expressway at the edge of the
“That’s when we had that lunch Georgia campus, Hubbard in March of 2019 so that Commiswrote. But when the officer sioner Garber could actually sit approached, the car accelerdown and talk to heads of corpoated again. rations in the region and hear from “Once it became clear that them how much they wanted, and the vehicle was purposefully would support, a soccer team,” fleeing, I turned off my vehiKindle said. cle’s emergency lights, reduced
It worked. St. Louis was awarded my speed and discontinued my a franchise in August 2019. Garber attempt to stop the vehicle,” said he was especially impressed by Hubbard wrote. the support from officials from baseMoments later, Hubbard spotball’s Cardinals and the NHL’S Blues. ted what he believed to be one
Kindle said the business comof the cars on an expressway munity recognized what soccer exit ramp. He did not stop the can help offer them. car but recorded its license
“If you look at some of the demotag number. Further investigraphics of soccer fans, they have gation connected the car to a tendency to be younger,” Kindle Dumas-johnson, the officer said. “The corporate community wrote. He did not elaborate really was enamored by the posin the report. sibilities of what having a profesHubbard’s initial report sional soccer team could mean also listed a charge of fleeing because it would hopefully add from or attempting to elude a to the package that is St. Louis law enforcement officer. That to make it an attractive place to offense did not appear on arrest recruit businesses, families and warrants for Dumas-johnson, students.” however.
Police obtained arrest warrants Tuesday, six weeks after the incident. Hubbard notified Dumas-johnson about the warrants and told him to report to the jail.
Dumas-johnson was one of several Georgia players who celebrated their national championship early the morning of Jan. 15, hours after a parade and a celebration at Sanford Stadium.
Surveillance video obtained by the Journal-constitution shows several players and football staff members leaving a downtown Athens strip club about 2:30 a.m. Several cars, including one that matches the description of Dumas-johnson’s Dodge Charger and the Ford Expedition driven by LECroy, left the area less than 10 minutes before thefatal crash. Police reports said they were headed to a Waffle House near the crash site.
About one minute after police arrived at the crash scene, an officer asked a radio dispatcher to check the ownership of Dumas-johnson’s Dodge Charger, police dispatch logs show.
A police supervisor questioned Dumas-johnson more than an hour later, the dispatch logs indicate.the nature of that interview is not clear from publicly available records. But documents reviewed by the AJC show the police were investigating whether the cars headed to the Waffle House were racing.
The impact of the crash broke the Expedition’s speedometer at 83 mph, records show — slightly more than twice the speed limit.