GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Efforts continue to bring professional soccer teams to Green Bay, and those conversations now involve the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Late last year, the city entered into an exclusive negotiating window with the United Soccer League to bring men’s and women’s teams to Green Bay. USL officials have been in the city in the last few weeks.
“Had some good conversations with them and some community members who might be interested in participating in an ownership group of a USL franchise,” said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.
When asked about a potential location for the required 5,000-person stadium, Genrich mentioned the 15-acre downtown riverfront property that used to be home to Wisconsin Public Service’s headquarters.
“I would say you really need a good ownership group, of course, and then you also need a stadium, right?” said Genrich. “So, it’s both of those challenges/opportunities that we need to figure out.”
UW-Green Bay is also involved in the ongoing talks.
USL teams could play at UWGB’s Aldo Santaga Stadium, at least temporarily, according to Genrich. That stadium opened in 2018 with a bleacher capacity of up to 700. At the time, the athletic director said there was room to expand the bleachers for up to 2,000 people.
The university said in a statement:
UW-Green Bay is always interested in helping bring great things to our city. While premature for us to comment on this, we are very excited about the prospect. We look forward to working with the city and other stakeholders.
The city’s attraction to bringing USL teams here has a lot to do with the economic development possibilities. The USL has had success locating stadiums in spots where bars, restaurants and other developments follow. That makes the WPS site attractive, but it would be a hurdle for UW-Green Bay in being a long-term option for the league.
The university has plans to build the Phoenix Innovation Park on 64 acres of undeveloped land. Preliminary plans call for academic, mixed-use and residential buildings, as well as a hotel and destination eatery.
A university spokesperson said the school is still working on receiving approval from the state. However, the innovation park is “not connected at all” with the USL talks.
Meanwhile, the city’s exclusive negotiating window expires in September, but has options to extend it another year.
“I would expect that will need to be renewed, but been having some good conversations,” said Genrich.
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