The plan is to build a 12,500 seat stadium for women’s soccer and other soccer related activities.

Another sports group has decided it needs some public money for a stadium, this time in Cleveland. The Cleveland group wants to build a small soccer stadium and bid for a National Women’s Soccer League franchise. The Cleveland Soccer Group landed an MLS Next Pro expansion team in 2022 with a planned 2025 start. The MLS Next Pro circuit is a third tier United States grouping. The Cleveland Soccer Group wants $90 million from the Cleveland city government, the local County government and the Ohio state government to help pay for its proposed $150 million 12,500 seat stadium and the group also needs a decision on the funding as soon as possible because it wants to get a NWSL expansion franchise and that window is closing as proposals for the league’s next expansion franchise are due soon.

The Cleveland Sports Group  is of the thought that the $90 million of public funding is needed and that money can be raised through admissions taxes and public revenue bonds. There is a claim that no new or increased taxes are necessary. The planned stadium would be in the area that houses Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns and the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Northeastern Ohio taxpayers have poured an awful lot of money into the baseball, football and the basketball venues. The Cleveland Sports Group wants a piece of that public funding which comes from a sin tax. Local voters said yes to a tax on alcohol and cigarette sales in 1990 to fund the ballpark and arena. Voters extended that tax in 2014. The soccer group may face competition for the public money from the owners of the Browns franchise Dee and Jimmy Haslam as they want a renovated or new stadium and need public money to make that happen.

The proposed Cleveland Soccer stadium.

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