Critical stadium site choice ahead for Buffalo Pro Soccer team
A project’s location is always critical to whether it may succeed. That’s certainly the case now for Buffalo Pro Soccer, which is deciding where to build a stadium for a professional soccer team the group would like to bring to Buffalo after its initial site choice had to be scrapped.
After whiffing on its first choice for a stadium site, the organizers behind the push to bring professional soccer to Buffalo face renewed pressure to get their pick right on the second try.
Soccer fans attend Buffalo Pro Soccer’s town hall at Larkin Square on Thursday. Joed Viera/Buffalo News
Buffalo Pro Soccer scrapped its first choice to play in a new stadium on the former Medaille University athletic complex − located next to a chemical plant − and had to drop its plan to start play next year and instead set its sights on the 2027 season.
Now, Peter Marlette, the Buffalo Pro Soccer president who is leading the effort to bring a United Soccer League Champion club to Western New York, says the most important thing this time is to get the decision right.
“We could make a decision today, but we want to make sure we really have figured everything out and make sure we’re making the right choice in picking a site that we can move forward with immediately but also it has to be something that’s sustainable,” said Marlette, the soccer executive who’s been leading Buffalo Pro Soccer since 2024.
The renewed hunt for a site means that the plan for a much more costly downtown stadium is back on the table for consideration. But so are multiple other sites, including another unidentified Buffalo location that was on the team’s short list the first time around.
The downtown site, owned by developer Douglas Jemal, is located around the Cobblestone District and waterfront area. Since the announcement, they have also heard about multiple other locations that could work, Marlette said, although he hasn’t said where those are.
But it is the downtown location, in the parking lots of the former Buffalo News and HSBC Atrium, situated between KeyBank Center and Sahlen Field, and next to the LECOM Harborcenter that seems to have Marlette, city planners and most fans all jazzed up.
Peter Marlette, president of Buffalo Pro Soccer, speaks during a town hall event at Larkin Square on Thursday, July 17, 2025.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
That was originally the top choice of Marlette, but the stadium would have cost $40 million to build and initially operate and required state funds to pay for about half of it. Buffalo Pro Soccer made an aggressive push but could not secure the state funding it needed to build the stadium at its preferred site.
Marlette has said, with additional investors now in the fold, public funds may not be needed to make that idea a reality.
This is Marlette’s chance to make a renewed pitch for the downtown site, which would solidify a sports district extending from Sahlen Field on Swan Street to KeyBank Center. It’s also around public transit and plenty of parking, as well as restaurant and entertainment options. It is a site that city officials encouraged Marlette to consider, instead of lower-cost alternatives elsewhere.
However, it is a site with a smaller footprint and may take longer to garner all municipal approvals needed to bring a stadium there.
“I think everybody knows the pros of that site and there’s also some cons,” Marlette said. “But it’s a great site and if we end up there, I’ll be thrilled.”
Many city planners agreed a downtown stadium would help bring more people, not only to the waterfront area and Cobblestone District, but to all of downtown Buffalo, supporting hotels, bars and restaurants.
“I love that [downtown] location and what’s nice about it is that the homework is already done there and Peter scouted that location for a year, so there’s not too much to do,” said soccer fan David Yacono of East Aurora, a founding member season ticket holder for the team, who attended an update session the team held in Larkinville on Thursday evening.
“But it is nice that he’s opening it up for other locations as well,” he added.
Marlette has not yet set a deadline to pick a new site.
He’s considering the other site that was a finalist as well. That site has never been identified, but it is in the city, right outside downtown. Marlette also has heard about a few others, some “not far” from Larkinville, he said.
Either way, the stadium will be in the city. A city stadium is considered a more sustainable option financially than a suburban stadium for USL and it is more in line with the direction of teams in comparable markets. The stadium is expected to bring an estimated 240,000 new visitors to the area each year.
“All over the City of Buffalo, there are really good options and we’re exploring all of them,” Marlette said.
Where to build the stadium is a decision that will weigh heavily on whether the pro soccer initiative thrives or fails. A new team can fail if all the pieces aren’t in the right place. Location is a huge part of that.
Just look at Rochester.
About 20 years ago, Rochester decided to build a 13,000-seat stadium outside the downtown corridor to host its soccer and lacrosse teams, including the Rochester Rhinos, but the stadium was not a huge draw and the team folded after the 2017 season, leaving vacant what was once pitched as a future Major League Soccer venue.
Flower City Union now plays there with both men’s and women’s teams in lower-tier leagues than what the Rhinos were in and what is being proposed in Buffalo.
“Location is everything, so we need this to be right, because we want this to last,” Yacono said. “Buffalo Pro Soccer is going to do this the right way, not the rushed way. Yes, we have to wait a little bit longer, but it’s the right decision.”
The city’s Valley neighborhood location chosen in April for the $10 million modular soccer stadium became too much of a challenge for the group trying to start the USL club due to opposition from a chemicals manufacturing plant next door to the project. The stadium at 427 Elk St. would have been built on the fields that are no longer in use by Medaille after the university closed its doors in 2023.
Buffalo Pro Soccer said it reached an agreement to terminate the lease it had for the site with South Buffalo Development.
“I would like this team to be sustainable, and I feel like rushing it could be very negative in the long run,”
said Domenick Rettberg of Ellicottville during Buffalo Pro Soccer’s town hall at Larkin Square on Thursday. Joed Viera photos, Buffalo News
Making a measured decision on the next location is more important than getting started in 2026, according to Domenick Rettberg of Ellicottville, also a founding member season ticket holder.
“It is better to slowly roll everything out, rather than rush,” Rettberg said. “For me, I would like this team to be sustainable, and I feel like rushing it could be very negative in the long run.”