October 9 – The growth of the National Women Soccer League (NWSL) continues at breakneck speed. Hot on the heels of a Boston consortium paying $53 million for the rights to start a franchise in ‘Beantown’, the city of Cleveland is expected to be selected as the league’s 16th team.
The Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) are the group behind the bid and have secured land to develop a downtown stadium. The Cleveland Metroparks Board of Park Commissioners announced the purchase of 13.6 acres of state land to build a $150million (£114.3m), 12,500-seat stadium on what is currently undeveloped land in the city’s downtown.
Michael Murphy, co-founder and CEO of CSG told The Athletic: “It’s really where Clevelanders have been going for the last 30 years to enjoy professional sports.
“It’s about a five-minute walk from (the) home plate at Progressive Field, where the Guardians play in MLB, or maybe an eight-minute walk from mid-court where the Cavaliers play in the NBA.”
Murphy said his group’s economic impact study projects $4 billion in economic activity over 30 years from their new soccer stadium.
The NWSL has been experiencing rapid growth over the last few years. With Angel City FC in Los Angeles currently valued at $250 million, investors are seeking openings, which has led the league to push expansion fees to record highs.
The Cleveland soccer stadium project is not going to come cheap though. A mixture of public and private funding will be required to build the facility. Once completed the stadium will be publicly owned with the team holding the lease, however, as we’ve seen before, teams often start sulking a few years into the lease when the city doesn’t want to pay for refurbishments.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said last year that infrastructure is “probably the hardest problem to solve, long term, and one of the most important problems for us to solve as soon as possible”. Finding a solution, in turn, would help fuel growth in the league.
If their bid is successful, the franchise expects to begin playing as soon as 2026.
Contact the writer if this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1728487329labto1728487329ofdlr1728487329owedi1728487329sni@o1728487329fni1728487329