Boise-area pro soccer teams sign a 30-year lease. Here’s when they’ll start playing
Boise-area soccer fans can mark their calendars: Two professional clubs are coming to the Treasure Valley in 2026 and 2027.
Men’s and women’s soccer teams will move into Expo Idaho after Ada County finalized a contract to convert the former Les Bois horse-racing track into a soccer-focused, mixed-used stadium.
Boise Pro Soccer signed a 30-year lease with Ada County on Friday to bring two teams to the redeveloped site, which includes a 47-acre park along the Boise River. The privately funded stadium will sit south of the park with the existing grandstand as its base.
The men’s team will play its first games in March 2026 as part of USL League One in the third division of American men’s soccer. The women’s team would follow in August 2027 as part of the new USL Super League.
Neither names nor mascots have been announced for either squad.
“I think that with Phase One and Phase Two coming together, it’s going to be a generational, remarkable asset for the community,” said Brad Stith, CEO of Boise Pro Soccer, at Friday’s Ada County Commissioners meeting. “We’re excited to be a part of it.”
CONTRACT BRINGS PRO SOCCER TO BOISE
Many of the contract details were already laid out in a public auction last fall, where Boise Pro Soccer was the sole bidder for the site. The final contract ensures Ada County will not spend any taxpayer dollars on the project, commissioners said in a news release.
Boise Pro Soccer will pay Ada County $150,000 a year for 30 years to lease the site. It must spend at least $9 million to remodel the existing grandstand and expand the stadium to at least 6,000 seats during the initial phase. Ownership must increase seating to at least 11,000 seats and add additional playing fields within 10 years, according to the contract.
Ada County inked several new revenue sharing deals with Boise Pro Soccer on Friday that will earn the county 10% of all gross revenue from food and nonalcoholic beverages, 60% from alcoholic beverages and 5% of naming rights to the stadium.
The soccer teams must also pay Ada County $10,000 per year for a dirt parking lot south of the stadium and $2 per car in a paved parking lot to the west.
Ada County commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the contract. Commissioner Ryan Davidson voted no, saying commissioners didn’t have enough time to solicit public input or review how the soccer stadium would affect a proposed redevelopment of nearby Memorial Stadium, home of the Boise Hawks baseball team.
“I want to make sure that the two projects are totally on board, and that one project isn’t going to negatively affect the other project,” Davidson said at the meeting. “Because the redevelopment of the Hawks’ stadium, it’s a much larger project than this. It’s over $80 million that they’re looking at investing into not just a new stadium, but restaurants, bars, all this.
“The two projects have to work together to make sure that both are successful.”
WHO WOULD THEY PLAY? WHEN IS THEIR SEASON?
Both teams would join nationwide leagues.
The men’s squad would join a growing USL League One, home to 14 teams but with plans to expand to 20 by 2026. Its season runs from March to October.
Existing teams reside in Spokane; Lancaster, California; Sherman, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Madison, Wisconsin; Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Naples, Florida; Statesboro, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Portland, Maine; and New York City.
Expansion teams are planned for Boise; Eugene, Oregon; Corpus Christi, Texas; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Paterson, New Jersey; and Sarasota, Florida.
The women’s team would become part of the expanding USL Super League, which was granted Division I status by U.S. Soccer but has a long way to go to challenge the established NWSL.
The Super League’s season runs from August to May, aligning with soccer’s international schedule. It launched last fall with eight teams in Spokane; Dallas; Lexington, Kentucky; Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida; Charlotte; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.
The women’s league plans to expand to 10 new markets. Other than Boise, those are Oakland; Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Madison; Indianapolis; Northwest Arkansas; Chattanooga; and Jacksonville and Palm Beach, Florida.
PLANS TO EXPAND STADIUM
The existing grandstand seats 3,900, according to contract drawings. So Boise Pro Soccer plans to boost seating in several areas.
Preliminary designs show the addition of 1,393 seats in “premium grandstands” that extend from the existing grandstands down to the field. Designs also show expanded seating in the Turf Club (202), a standing-only supporters section (500), field-side seating (300), loge boxes (126) and field suites (160) on the north end.
Designs also show a beer garden (253) as well as bleachers and a berm on the east side (320).
Ada County retains the right to use the site for the Western Idaho Fair each year, including concerts in front of the grandstands. The soccer teams’ primary field will be artificial turf to allow for concerts and winter games, said Bill Taylor, the former vice president of U.S. Soccer and co-founder of Boise Pro Soccer.
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
