The United Soccer League, the organization set to become one of the first tenants of the Spokane School District's new downtown stadium, hopes to have a team playing here by spring of 2023.
United Soccer League’s future in Spokane was contingent on a downtown stadium. Now that the stadium has been approved by the school board, USL leaders say they will follow through on that promise.
Justin Papadakis, the league's COO, said the first step is discussing design at the new stadium, which is set to be completed in 2022, and next, find owners to take over from the League.
“We will be in market this upcoming week to finalize the ownership group that will take the team to where we think Spokane can be, one of the top teams in the United States.”
USL has two professional leagues, League One and Championship. It also has a pre-professional league. Spokane will be in the League One. Papadakis said the team could end up playing the Portland Timbers, or Seattle Sounders at games in Spokane.
He said once owners are chosen, the league can start work on a Spokane-centric brand.
“We’re definitely going to have significantly community involvement in picking the name, team colors and so many other aspects of the club.”
The downtown stadium will seat 5,000 people, and the school board approved it last week. Construction is slated to be completed in 2022 and USL says it hopes to start playing soccer there at the start of the 2023 soccer season.
This story was corrected on May 17 to clarify that USL has two professional soccer leagues.
