Soccer Officials Hopeful Sacramento Will Start Playing In MLS By 2020
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber says Sacramento looks like the future of America's soccer league, and a team could be in the capital city by 2020.
He and other top soccer officials toured the railyards site where the proposed soccer stadium would end up, and got a look at sketches of the new, head-turning $225 million stadium.
Garber says he came to see if the pieces were fitting, and they are.
"They have two years with the Republic a great brand a strong ownership group..they've already solidified their site they've solidified their ownership group, so they're ahead of the rest of the pack," he said.
That pack includes five other potential cities vying for four expansion spots.
A lot of Thursday's hype was on a big stage in the heart of L Street. Bringing the commissioner to Sacramento to show off the city's fan power was Step 1. Now some of the big players are asking big fans for patience as they get the rest of the details together.
Project designer Scott Capstack presented the commissioner with the sketches of what would be the privately funded soccer-only stadium. Now he says it's time to get to work on additional, more-detailed renderings.
"It's still a long process just to draw," he said. "We still have almost another year, another eight months just to really flesh out the drawing of it."
After a years of drawings will be two years of construction.
With the Sacramento Kings moving into the Golden 1 Center around the corner, there's a lot that investors like Kevin Nagle are banking on.
"The estimates are Major League Soccer in Sacramento is going to build in $1.7 billion of economic growth into the region," he said.
The formal announcement could come before the end of 2016.