The National Women’s Soccer League has identified Cleveland as a market of interest.
The Cleveland market appears to be a step closer to landing a National Women’s Soccer League franchise. In April, the NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said that the league is “comfortably on track” to choose the location and ownership group for its 16th team at “the beginning of Q4” which means sometime very soon as it is the fourth quarter of 2024. The Cleveland Soccer Group has purchased land in an area of Cleveland that features the home of Major League Baseball’s Guardians franchise, not far from the home of the National Football League’s Browns business and not far from the home of National Basketball Association’s Cavaliers franchise. The Cleveland Soccer Group has a plan to build a women’s soccer stadium on that plot of land. The soccer group, along with Cleveland Metroparks, purchased the 13.6 acres of Ohio-owned land for $4.2 million.
If the owners decide that the Cleveland market is the right fit, the Cleveland soccer franchise owners claim they will spend $150 million for a 12,500-seat stadium with the possibility of expanding the facility to seat as many as 20,000 people. The Cleveland group claims it has nearly 15,000 season ticket pledges if it gets an NWSL expansion franchise. How to pay for the stadium is the first hurdle that needs to be cleared. The Cleveland Soccer Group will be going hat in hand to various levels of government looking for $90 million from taxpayers from the city, county and the state. The soccer group will put up $60 million but will not own the stadium. That will go to taxpayers. If the government owns the stadium, there may not be a need to pay property tax. The Cleveland Soccer Group may have some competition from investors in Cincinnati and Denver in its bid to land a NWSL franchise.
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The proposed Cleveland soccer stadium.
