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Soccer community comes out in support of downtown stadium proposal

Posted at 10:28 PM, Apr 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-24 00:28:07-04

Adrian Cain has two boys under ten that play soccer, he said the soccer community continues to grow in Boise and that the proposition of a downtown stadium that could bring a professional team to the area would be exciting.

"My kids would be over the moon if we had a pro team in town," said Cain.

The president of the Idaho Youth Soccer Association said that over two thousand children play soccer in Boise and that the soccer community has tested the waters by bringing matches to the area.

The Basque Soccer Friendly in 2015 between Athletic Club Bilbao from northern Spain and Club Tijuana from Mexico sold 24,000 tickets and it was the first time the blue turf at Boise State was ever converted into grass. 

"There is quite an appetite for soccer anytime we have had a soccer event people have shown they are willing to pay for it," said Bill Taylor.

However, without a new stadium, there wouldn't be a new soccer club in Boise and Taylor believes that if the stadium doesn't get built downtown the developer would back out.

"If it is not downtown you are not going to get a developer to invest that kind of money, I mean why would you," said Taylor. "So many stadiums fail because they are just stand alone stadiums in the middle of nowhere."

As we saw last week people have many concerns with the downtown location with the biggest concern being spending public money to help construct the expected $40 million stadium, but people also worry about noise, parking, and traffic, however the stadium would have 5,000 seats.

"It is not an enormous stadium," said Cain. "The concerns about traffic and congestion area a little overblown in my opinion."

The city told Six on Your Side that the developer Greenstone Properties has not yet applied for a permit to rezone the proposed property near the corner of Americana Boulevard and Shoreline Drive.