Mesa Mayor John Giles, in one of his last acts before he leaves office after 10 years, told The Arizona Republic that he is working behind the scenes to bring a professional Major League Soccer team to Mesa.
It wasn’t just idle talk or wishful thinking. Mesa is the state’s third-largest city, there is a big soccer fan base in metro Phoenix, a winning lower-league soccer franchise that just won a recent national championship, and a new state law making developing a stadium more financially feasible.
On top of that, Mesa officials have been talking with a developer to broker a deal on one of two west Mesa sites that are well-suited for a potential soccer stadium.
Here’s where things stand:
Giles revealed he had been meeting for months with the league and potential investors and developers about building a soccer stadium in Mesa.
Talk is preliminary, but two sites in west Mesa are best suited, city officials say. One is the old 80-acre Fiesta Mall which is now being redeveloped. The City Council in December approved the zoning for the renamed Fiesta Redefined project. Verde Investments, the developer of Fiesta Redefined said through a spokesperson that it has not had conversations about a soccer stadium there. The other site is an old gravel pit on a 200-acre site at Alma School Road and Loop 202.
Giles says all options are being discussed. These include starting a new team, relocating an existing team in another market, or elevating the Phoenix Rising from a lower league and admitting it as an MLS expansion team.
It’s hard to know how long that might take. The MLS has no immediate expansion plans and applications usually are years in the making. The league announced in 2019 it was going to expand to 30 teams. It took four years to name the 30th team.
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Lots of reasons. Population. Available land. Demographics. Partnerships. Strong local support for soccer. Successful lower-league soccer franchise. Strong political support. Timing.
Mesa is going to be in a “very competitive position to attract a Major League Soccer team to our city,” Giles said.
Mesa has more than 511,000 residents, more than double that of Green Bay, which has long supported a successful NFL franchise. Sports team owners have long eyed the East Valley as a bedrock for support. That lured the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes to seek an arena in Tempe, and, when voters rejected that idea, briefly in Mesa.
Soccer has been growing in popularity nationally and in Arizona. A large Latino population has contributed and around a quarter of Mesa’s population is Latino.
“The East Valley has always been really an underserved area as far as these large venues and yet when you talk about … who’s buying the season tickets. … It’s mostly coming for the East Valley,” Mesa City Manager Chris Brady said.
International soccer events, particularly those involving Spanish or Latin American teams draw massive crowds. State Farm Stadium in Glendale has hosted six international tournament games involving the Mexican national team since 2009 and a seventh is scheduled next year. In June, nearly 63,000 people watched a goalless tournament match between Mexico and Ecuador.
The next FIFA men’s World Cup, in 2026, will be hosted in the United States, Mexico and Canada and the quadrennial tournament usually ramps up local interest in the sport. That could add ammunition to calls to expand the MLS, which was founded after and because of the last World Cup hosted in the United States.
It’s not just the appetite for international soccer. The local scene is strong, too. The Phoenix Rising plays in the domestic league one tier down from the MLS. It won a championship in 2023 and earlier that year when the team moved into a new temporary stadium near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, the team lured its record-breaking crowd of more than 10,000 fans.
Away from the stadium, there is strong political support for the idea. Incoming Mayor-elect Mark Freeman and councilmember Francisco Heredia, whose district includes the two sites best suited for a stadium development, echoed Giles’ support for an MLS team in Mesa. “I would be one of the biggest cheerleaders to help support MLS here in the city of Mesa,” Freeman said.
Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bill in June that could pave the way to fund a stadium in Mesa.
Real estate developer and founding executive of MLS Nick Sakiewicz told The Republic he’s supporting Mesa’s plan, and lobbied for the law Hobbs signed.
“The district legislation is a big component of the financing of the stadium and that’s very unique,” Sakiewicz said. That will give Mesa a competitive edge over other cities across the county, he added.
MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche said the league is “focused on maintaining a 30-team league” and there were no current plans for further expansion.
But then he left the door open by adding, “However, there is clearly more demand for MLS clubs than there is current supply, and we recognize the potential for growth in a league that spans two large countries capable of supporting more than 30 teams. At some point in the future, we may consider expansion beyond 30 clubs.”
Courtemanche said successful expansion bids must meet these criteria: “strong stadium plan, robust community and political support, an ownership group with local ties and a commitment to Major League Soccer’s vision, and a passionate fan base.”
He wrote, “The Phoenix area has long demonstrated strong support for soccer at all levels, and we appreciate the interest in bringing an MLS club to the region.”
Currently, Indianapolis is the leading contender for the next MLS team. City officials announced in April that they will submit a bid with the league. League officials have also said Las Vegas has a strong bid, and while losing out for the 30th slot, is still in contention if the league expands further.
Over the years a string of cities, including Phoenix, have vied unsuccessfully for an MLS expansion team. They are: Cleveland, San Antonio, Detroit, Raleigh, Tampa Bay, Sacramento and Louisville.
A lot. Think nine figures.
San Diego was the last city to get an MLS franchise team. San Diego FC paid the league a cool $500 million for the right. The St. Louis City Soccer Club paid a $200 million franchise fee.
Those numbers have only gone up as the league matures. When the league expanded between 2009 and 2011, a string of new teams paid expansion fees ranging from $30 million to $40 million. By 2015 another handful of expansion teams paid between $70 million and $100 million.
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Same answer. These don’t come cheap.
In St. Louis, a new 22,000-seat soccer stadium cost $450 million in 2023. San Diego didn’t have to build a new stadium. Instead, it struck a deal with San Diego State University to play out of its 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium. That would mark the largest capacity for an MLS team so far.
Not including Miami, whose $1 billion stadium included surrounding developments, the last three other new stadiums cost $325 million for the 30,000-seater in Nashville in 2022, $300 million for a 20,000-seat stadium in Columbus, Ohio in 2021 and $260 million for a similarly sized stadium in Austin the same year.
Mesa faces a uniquely expensive challenge: the heat. That would require a would-be MLS franchise owner to put in a climate-controlled stadium, which would require a roof. That’s because the MLS season runs from February to October. It’s unknown how much a roof would add to the cost.
MLS stands for Major League Soccer. The league started with 10 teams in 1996, as part of the deal with FIFA, the international governing body of the sport, to bring the World Cup to the United States in 1994. The league has since expanded to 30 teams
Four teams have joined the MLS in this decade: Austin FC in 2020, Charlotte FC in 2021, St. Louis City SC in 2022 and San Diego FC in 2024.
It’s possible. Numerous professional soccer teams have twin women’s teams as part of their franchises.
Yes. The Phoenix Rising. The Rising plays in the 24-team United Soccer League, or USL, which is one tier below the MLS. The team won the national USL Championship in 2023.
“Since founding Phoenix Rising FC nine years ago, we have always been committed to playing in Division 1 of professional men’s soccer in North America,” Tyler Butler, a spokesperson for Phoenix Rising, wrote in response to The Republic’s inquiry.
Butler acknowledged the only way for the team to rise ranks is “to build an approved stadium and pay the MLS expansion fee” regardless of the team’s performance each season.
The Rising first floated the idea of an MLS expansion back in 2017 when the team played at a temporary stadium on the Salt River-Pima Indian Community, near the intersection of Loops 202 and 101.
The original plan was to improve that stadium to MLS standards with a modern 20,000-seat facility. The team had financing and star power in the form of former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba as a minority owner and player. Phoenix was in competition with Sacramento and Austin and the league awarded the franchise to the team to the Texans.
Since then, The Rising moved to a stadium near Wildhorse Pass on the Gila River Indian Community, before relocating again to a stadium at 38th and Washington streets in Phoenix on the site of the old dog track.
Anybody with money.
Owners for other MLS franchises include NFL owners, investor groups and former MLS star David Beckham.
Several teams also have celebrity investors including actor Matthew McConaughey with Austin FC, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes with Sporting KC and Suns’ Kevin Durant with the Philadelphia Union.
