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Hey, remember that thing? Supposed to go up behind Straz Tower? New home for MU soccer & lacrosse? Yeah, feels like it’s getting shaky out there.
Hey, remember when Marquette announced that they were selling a bunch of land that they own south and east of Straz Tower and it was going to get developed into, among other things, a, 8,000 seat stadium for an outdoor professional soccer franchise? MU was going to get to put their soccer and lacrosse home games in there? The Iron District? Any of this ringing a bell?
If you don’t remember, that’s fine. The announcement of the sale was in May of 2022. That was two and a half years ago!
The plan for that soccer stadium has, quite obviously, hit a few bumps in the road. At the time, Kacmarcik Enterprises and Bear Development said that they expected that the pro soccer team would start playing in the spring of 2024. That [checks calendar, sees December 2024] did not happen, but that’s fine! About four weeks after an announcement that the state of Wisconsin was going to provide a $9.3 million grant for the project…. the soccer franchise announced that they were delaying plans to start play by one year. That was already after they delayed things, because that delay was pushing the start from 2025 to 2026, and as you can tell, 2025 is not even the original idea of 2024.
Anyway, so, it’s December 2024 now, and well, USL Championship teams begin their season in March. That means March 2026 is [checks watch] 15 months away. I can tell you for a fact that there is not a single shred of evidence that there’s going to be a completed soccer stadium in 15 months on that site right now. Nary so much as a temporary fence around the area, much less any movement to begin demolition of the office building that’s kiiiiinda in the way of this project.
But no worries, everyone! The Milwaukee Business Journal had a story yesterday on this exact topic! Everything’s fine!
The developers behind the Iron District’s professional soccer stadium in downtown Milwaukee are targeting an early spring 2025 groundbreaking as they continue working to secure financing for the project.
Wait. Did Teddy Nykiel just say “continue working to secure financing for the project” there?
[re-reads, slower and more carefully]
yup, that’s what it says
19 months after MU announced the sale with the intention behind the sale, the guys who bought the land don’t have the money to build the stadium completely locked down yet. Seems…. less than ideal.
Bear Real Estate Group CEO S.R. Mills told MBJ that they’re still planning for that 2026 beginning for the soccer team, partially because their first few games would be away games anyway because of Milwaukee’s climate and the locations of the other USL Championship franchises. So that buys them a month or so, but for whatever reason, Mills believes that they can 1) break ground relatively soon and 2) get it built in 14-16 months. I don’t know how to tell them this, but 16 months from right now is early April 2026. 16 months from the first day of 2025 is the first day of May 2026. 14 months from “early spring 2025” where spring officially starts in late March is in May 2026 and 16 months from there is late July 2026.
This seems not ideal, especially with the note in the story that 14-16 months is “faster than previously predicted.” If the previous prediction is actually right….. they’re not starting til 2027, right? And even if the new expectation is correct, one tiny hiccup in the construction process — it rains for a week when you’re planning on pouring concrete, maybe — throws the entire thing off and the chances of starting the 2026 season even close to on time seems not likely.
Except, wait, what’s this?
The developers are finalizing the financing for the upcoming phase and hope to have the process completed by the end of the year, he said.
So they want to begin construction soon-ish, but they don’t have ink on contracts for the money for it yet.
Two and a half years after acquiring the land and announcing that they want to put this project together.
Okay, well, maybe “finalizing” means “lawyers are reading contracts before the people who sign them do that.” so it’s essentially done.
Wait, what’s this?
The Iron District developers have not yet selected a contractor for the stadium, hotel and events venue, Mills said.
And they don’t have a contractor in place waiting to be told that the money is ready to be given to them to actually do the work. Or a contractor who has an actual construction plan set to actually get the work done in 14-16 months.
Look. I might be an idiot here. Let’s be very clear about that. I have absolutely zero hands-on experience in the real estate or construction businesses. But it feels like “we don’t have contracts signed for the money or the construction company on December 5th, 2024” is in direct opposition to “We expect to host thousands of people for a professional soccer match in April 2026.”
Putting the word out there that things are thisclose to getting started is probably a good sign. If there was a true problem, they’d probably be keeping their mouths shut about it right now.
But it also feels like we’re very close to what amounts to a third one year delay of getting this thing off the ground since Marquette sold the land.
I think the one thing that we can say for certain right now is that if they’re thinking they can just squeeze in the construction in order to play 2026 USL season matches, then Marquette men’s and women’s lacrosse will not be playing their games in there in the spring of 2026 at all. “First home game in late April” is right when the lacrosse regular season is wrapping up. Right now, the best case scenario is Marquette making its debut in that building with the 2026-27 school year and the 2026 soccer season in August.
(h/t @dmaciejewski)
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