The 2021 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials at the Dome at America’s Center
THE POWER OF SPORTS “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
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 74 slmag.net
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.”