The United Soccer League and the city of Green Bay are exploring bringing men’s and women’s professional soccer to Northeast Wisconsin at a time when the USL’s planned expansion into the Milwaukee market has stalled and is all but dead at this point.
Green Bay officials have entered into exclusive negotiations with the USL to evaluate the viability of professional soccer options in the city. This initial phase will consider key factors, including funding models and identifying a suitable location for a stadium.
“Green Bay is a prime location to bring both USL men’s and women’s teams,” Justin Papadakis, USL deputy chief executive officer and chief real estate officer, said in a statement. “Green Bay is home to some of the most passionate sports fans in the country and with limited professional soccer competition in the region, a USL club could quickly establish a dedicated fan base.”
A Green Bay men’s team would likely initially compete in either USL Championship or USL League One. There are currently 24 USL Championship clubs and 14 League One teams in the country but both leagues are set for expansion.
USL Championship is sanctioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation as the nation’s Division II professional league. The league consists of clubs in several larger metropolitan markets including Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s also the tier of club that Milwaukee was said to Green Bay would be one of the league’s smallest markets, if it’s decided that USL Championship is the appropriate fit.
USL League One, a Division III league, has teams in markets such as Greenville, South Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; Portland, Maine; Naples, Florida; and Spokane, Washington.
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Green Bay viewed as a good market
“People are pretty excited about the possibility of high-quality soccer in Green Bay,” Genrich told Milwaukee Magazine. “We’re well known as a pretty great sports town, especially when it comes to supporting the Green Bay Packers.”
Genrich said the potential development presents an opportunity to create a multi-purpose sports and entertainment district that could boost the city’s downtown.
Green Bay is home to the Green Bay Gamblers, a Tier 1 junior ice hockey team in the United States Hockey League; the Green Bay Blizzard, a longstanding franchise in the Indoor Football League; and the sports programs of UW-Green Bay. “Adding professional soccer to that mix is something that I think a lot of people would love to see,” Genrich said. “Soccer has been growing in popularity throughout the U.S. for a couple of decades or more, and here in Green Bay the community has been diversifying with growing Latino and Somali communities. It’s the right time for us to add another opportunity to our sports landscape.”
The proposed soccer stadium would have a minimum seating capacity of 5,000 with the ability for future expansion and could be integrated into a larger entertainment district with potential for housing, retail, restaurants, office space, hotel and entertainment facilities.
Milwaukee’s stillborn Iron District
A similar proposed project in Milwaukee involving the USL has essentially fallen through at this point.
Plans called for a major development called the Iron District on a vacant Downtown parcel, the centerpiece of which would be an 8,000-seat soccer stadium that would be home to a new professional soccer team, as well as Marquette University’s soccer and lacrosse teams. Plans also called for a 3,500-seat concert venue.
Ground was supposed to be broken by Kacmarcik Enterprises and Bear Development in 2022, with the stadium initially set to open in spring 2024 and play to begin in the USL Championship in spring 2025. That plan was delayed to 2026, but with no stadium construction activity, that goal is now unattainable. Few associated with the proposed Iron District are talking about the state of the project.
USL officials didn’t respond to inquiries from Milwaukee Magazine about the league’s possible expansion into Green Bay and how that might impact the proposed Iron District project and efforts to bring professional soccer to Milwaukee.
Genrich said he was only minimally aware of the situation in Milwaukee and has been given no indication from the USL that Green Bay’s potential involvement in the league would be predicated by Milwaukee backing out of its effort.
“To the contrary, what the USL has said is that they would like to create throughout the country a series of regional rivalries,” he said. “The idea of having a Green Bay team squaring off against a Milwaukee team or Green Bay versus Madison is something that is pretty attractive to them.”
Madison has a team, Forward Madison FC, that competes in USL League One.
Milwaukee wouldn’t be alone in failing to secure a dedicated soccer venue for a USL team. After Memphis didn’t develop a new soccer stadium as planned, the USL in 2024 approved the transfer of Memphis 901 FC’s Championship franchise rights to Santa Barbara SKY FC, which is expected to being play in USL Championship in 2026. Santa Barbara, with a population of about 89,000, is comparable in size to Green Bay, which has a population of approximately 107,000.
“Certainly, we have a history of competing with larger markets with the Green Bay Packers being here,” Genrich said. “But we’ve got a great track record of supporting collegiate sports and other professional sports, too. Our people tend to really enjoy coming out for competitive sporting events. We’re well placed to add soccer here.”
Genrich also praised the USL for its understanding about what sports-related economic development can look like if done well.
“We have a number of sites in mind for a stadium but we haven’t talked about any particular ones publicly but we certainly understand the value of sports-oriented economic development, especially in downtowns,” Genrich said. “We’d love to reap some of those benefits in addition to adding the sport itself.”
The Green Bay area has had a pre-professional USL team, the Green Bay Voyageurs FC, in the past. The team, which had been based in Ashwaubenon, ceased operations ahead of the 2022 season.
Papadakis, the USL official, told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that the likelihood of Green Bay getting a USL team is “quite high.”
“What we’ve seen is that if we have a really engaged city partner, we can have the best shot at making that happen,” he said.
