If you build it, will they come? Why we’re not sold on a Fort Worth soccer stadium proposal

Have you dreamed of cheering on a soccer team like Austin FC in your own backyard?

On Tuesday, the Fort Worth City Council voted to instruct city staff to explore building a professional soccer stadium. City leaders have been exploring soccer facilities for years, with proposals that include a taxpayer-subsidized 10,000 seat complex for two minor leagues and a separate 11-field tournament area for our growing youth soccer audience.

They hope to boost an interest in professional sports, increase revenue to the area, and bolster youth soccer, too. And two council members will travel to Spain to gauge interest in FC Barcelona, a leading international club, partnering on a youth soccer academy, the Star-Telegram reported.

We understand why it sounds alluring and even why Fort Worth seems like a natural bet for the complex, but we’re not convinced yet that it’s a good investment for taxpayers to subsidize. Frankly, if we’re aiming for something as big as NCAA-level crowds, minor league teams that draw in fewer than 1,000 people a game don’t make sense. As cliche as it sounds, go big or go home.

Austin Bold FC, a United Soccer League Championship team, is looking for a new home. The team’s owners include former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson and Neil Leibman, a top Texas Rangers executive.

A women’s team, part of a newly formed USL Super League, could also play in a new stadium.

District 4 City Council member Cary Moon has been trying to build support for the soccer projects.

“We have to compete to get their business, and that’s what I’ve been working on for the past two years,” he told the Star-Telegram recently.

Convention, Sports, and Leisure International, a consulting firm in Frisco, gave the council a lengthy report that Moon believes supports building a stadium. Moon also said the group evaluated demographic data in Fort Worth and other similar-sized cities and found attendance to minor league soccer would average attendance of 6,000 fans per game.

But in a survey of 2,000 residents, only 38 percent said they were avid soccer fans, and another 29 percent weren’t fans at all. What about their kids? Sixty-four percent said no one in their house even played soccer. Only 17 percent were interested in USL.

What’s the takeaway? If you build it, they may not come.

The projected audience is ambitious. The average attendance of Austin Bold FC is just 957 people. In the league, Louisville City FC has the highest attendance, averaging about 10,000 per game.

The stadium site would be at the northeast corner of Interstate 35W and Basswood Boulevard. That’s already a congested area, so if the teams did do well, traffic would be an issue — as it would if a youth-soccer complex were developed there.

But Moon introduced another possibility Monday, telling the Star-Telegram that a youth facility could be built in the Walsh development in far west Fort Worth. Clearly, the plans remain fluid.

A focus on youth sports could bolster revenue for Fort Worth. According to a 2019 estimate by Visit Fort Worth, the city’s tourism and promotional arm, a 20-field youth soccer complex could draw 100,000 visitors and $16 million a year to the city.

That sounds promising. But Fort Worth has been working to become a bigger sports town. Is minor-league soccer the way to do it? If we really want to draw in additional sports tourism, we need to aim higher.

The stadium could potentially draw events such as college tournaments, but we’d need to see more evidence it would get enough regular use to be worthwhile.

Updated Tuesday afternoon to reflect the City Council approving a study.

This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 5:04 AM.