Louisville City FC has its search for a stadium site down to a main option, Chairman John Neace told The Courier-Journal in a story published Saturday.
“We’re 100 percent down the line in terms of knowing the site that we want and having the ground optioned up, but we don’t own any of it yet,” Neace told the paper. “We are working pretty diligently for, let’s just say, a backup plan in case that doesn’t work out.”
The site will be disclosed later, ideally in the first quarter of this year. Neace has previously stated the club will seek land in “urban Louisville,” and in his Courier-Journal interview, he hinted at a location.
“We’ve got to be out there where you can see us from the highway, so people who are out on Saturday night looking for something to do may say, ‘Let’s go to a soccer game. We’ve never been,’ and what spurs them to think about it is the stadium,” Neace said. “So visibility for the stadium itself is pretty key.”
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Since starting play in 2015, LouCity has established itself as one of the United Soccer League’s top teams. The club’s 108 points earned during the regular season are best among any team over that span and, led by Coach James O’Connor, the boys in purple have made consecutive runs to the Eastern Conference Final.
LouCity meanwhile averaged 7,218 fans at home games in 2016, ranking third of 30 USL teams. That’s a figure that sits in the top 30 nationally, including Major League Soccer franchises. LouCity’s league, the USL, was recently promoted to Division 2 status just below MLS.
Amid LouCity’s success, a study conducted by Convention, Sports & Leisure and Legends and released last August by Louisville Forward confirmed that a soccer-specific stadium is needed to maintain and grow professional soccer in Louisville.
Mayor Greg Fischer at the time said sharing Louisville Slugger Field with the Louisville Bats baseball club “is not sustainable.” He added that the “Louisville City Football Club is off to a great start, and we must embrace the growing demand for soccer in our city and strategically prepare for long-term growth.”
