Time is running short for the group that wants to bring pro soccer to Buffalo next year
With a little over a year left until the 2027 United Soccer League Championship season starts, the group still has not settled on a site for a new stadium, let alone received the city approvals it needs to build it and then actually construct the new facility.
Time is running short for the group that wants to bring a professional soccer club to Buffalo and have it start playing in a new stadium.
With a little over a year left until the 2027 United Soccer League Championship season starts, the group still has not settled on a site for a new stadium, let alone received the city approvals it needs to build it.
Buffalo Pro Soccer, which is trying to bring the soccer club to Buffalo, said it remains confident about plans for the expansion team to begin play by 2027, but that could be held up by the lack of a decision on where to build a stadium.
The parking lots between the former Buffalo News building and behind the former HSBC Atrium building
have been identified by developers as a potential site for a professional soccer stadium. Derek Gee, Buffalo News
Once a stadium site is determined and secured, the group will likely need around a year to garner the appropriate municipal approvals and then construct a modular stadium in the city in time for the USL season that starts in March 2027.
Buffalo Pro Soccer has already delayed plans for the team by a year after the first stadium site chosen in the city’s Valley neighborhood fell through in the summer, after opposition from a chemical manufacturing plant next door drew attention to earlier complaints about fumes and odors there.
Now, as Peter Marlette, president of the group, faces the pressure of choosing a site for a second time, time is of the essence.
The only known site under consideration is a downtown location on the parking lots of the former Buffalo News building and HSBC Atrium, between KeyBank Center and Sahlen Field, and next to LECOM Harborcenter. That site has probably been the most intriguing for city planners and officials.
City officials encouraged Marlette to consider the site, instead of lower-cost alternatives elsewhere, because it 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.
Marlette has also been looking at another unidentified Buffalo location that was on the team’s short list the first time around, and considering a few other locations, but he has said from the beginning that he prefers a site in the city.
“Buffalo Pro Soccer has made significant progress and remains confident in its ability to be up and playing by 2027,” the group said in a statement.
“These processes take time, and we appreciate the continued support of our growing fan base and the patience and understanding of the community as we work to build a soccer club and stadium Buffalo can be proud of,” Buffalo Pro Soccer said.
Since the announcement in July that Buffalo Pro Soccer would be scrapping its first choice to play in a new $10 million stadium on the former Medaille University athletic complex − located on Elk Street next to the chemical plant, Marlette has been in negotiations on a final site for the club and trying to raise funding from additional investors.
He had no timeline for the decision but has said it should be made “imminently.” In October, during a public town hall, Marlette said he was in serious negotiations and getting closer to making a call on a stadium site. He has not spoken to the media since, and declined a request for an interview this past week with The Buffalo News.
Peter Marlette, president of Buffalo Pro Soccer, is still deciding on a location for a USL expansion club that he'd like to bring to Buffalo by 2027.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
Marlette said he still plans to build a stadium with prefabricated modular pieces, which would likely take around eight months to complete, but there will likely be municipal approvals needed that, depending on the site chosen, could take months.
Building a modular stadium speeds up construction, reduces the cost and allows for some design adjustments throughout the process. Still, Marlette has said he would like to allow for up to a year to get the project done.
Buffalo Pro Soccer could form the expansion team for the 2027 season and play at another site for a year while the stadium is being finished, but Marlette has repeatedly said he would prefer not to start in a temporary location.
“We’ve explored the idea, and it financially never makes a ton of sense for any market that does it,” Marlette, a Western New York native and pro soccer executive who has been working for about two years to bring the team to Buffalo, said in July.
“We only get one chance to get a first season with this club, and we want to make sure that it is exceptional and not rushed, not forced and not temporary,” he added.
Marlette said he was optimistic about the process to choose a second site because there had been a year of work already done vetting a few other locations that were back on the table after the July decision. The stadium is expected to bring an estimated 240,000 new visitors to the area each year.
“We know all there is to know about those sites,” he said in July. “I think we’re in a really good position to move forward and ensure that we are playing in the 2027 season.”
City officials are intrigued by the potential downtown site, owned by developer Douglas Jemal, because it is near the Cobblestone District and waterfront area, so it has more upside in spurring more activity and development there.
It was originally the top choice of Marlette, but the stadium would have cost $40 million to build and initially operate. That meant the group needed 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.
Marlette has said that, with additional investors now in the fold, public funds may not be needed to make that idea a reality. He has said that there are even more stakeholders in the mix. The number depends on which site is chosen.
A downtown soccer stadium would solidify a sports district extending from Sahlen Field on Swan Street to KeyBank Center. It is also around public transit and plenty of parking, as well as restaurants and entertainment options.
In the meantime, the organization this past week named William Malott as the club's youth academy director. Malott most recently served as director of MLS Next Academy at Phoenix Rising Youth Soccer, overseeing the club's elite player development program within Major League Soccer's premier youth competition platform.
The appointment of Malott “underscores Buffalo Pro Soccer's commitment to player development as a cornerstone of its identity and sends a powerful message about the club’s priorities,” Marlette said in a statement.
