A new stadium in the Boise area? Details on the latest plans for a long-debated project

A push to build a new stadium and bring a professional soccer team to the Boise area took its next step forward Wednesday.

Ada County unveiled a public auction for a 27-acre site at Expo Idaho, laying out its vision to convert the former Les Bois horse racing track into a soccer-focused, mixed-used stadium.

Bidding starts at $150,000 a year for a 30-year lease. The property includes parts of the old horse track, the Turf Club Bar and Grill, and parking lots. The winning bidder would also need to negotiate revenue sharing with Ada County.

Key details of Ada County’s plan include:

• A 6,000-seat stadium with the capacity to grow to 11,000.

• Attracting men’s and women’s professional soccer teams for 15-20 home games a year.

• At least $9 million to renovate the existing grandstands in the first two years.

• Additional fields around the stadium for soccer, lacrosse, football, rugby and baseball within 10 years.

The county will announce the winner of the auction on Oct. 30. The winner then has 90 days to sign a development agreement with the county and must finance the stadium itself.

The stadium project follows the county’s plan for a 47-acre park along the Boise River. It is still soliciting bids for that section of the former horse racing track and surrounding property.

WHAT SOCCER TEAM WOULD COME TO BOISE?

Die-hard soccer fans should temper their expectations.

The auction calls for “Division I men’s and women’s professional teams” sanctioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation. But don’t expect Boise to host a Major League Soccer (MLS) or National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club anytime soon.

No Major League Soccer team plays in a stadium that seats fewer than 18,000. But the United Soccer League (USL) is growing quickly. The USL Championship fits in the second-division of the U.S. Soccer pyramid, while the 6-year-old USL League One is battling to establish itself as the country’s third division.

The women’s side remains less clear. U.S. Soccer muddied the waters this year after granting the new women’s USL Super League first-division status . The new circuit met its standards for a first-division league, but those guidelines roughly mirror U.S. Soccer’s standards for a second-division men’s club, ESPN reported .

Few expect the USL Super League to compete directly with the NWSL, arguably the world’s top women’s soccer league.

The USL Super League played its first games last month. The eight-team league features teams in New York, Dallas and Washington, D.C. But it also fields teams in Spokane and Lexington, Kentucky, and plans to add teams in Madison, Wisconsin; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Northwest Arkansas — markets more closely aligned with Boise.

ANOTHER STADIUM PLAN

The latest stadium push follows decades of Boise trying — and failing — to build a new stadium.

Sites for a combined baseball and soccer stadium fell through in Downtown Boise and the West End, arguably costing former Boise Mayor David Bieter re-election in 2019. Boise voters passed a law in 2019 requiring their approval for any stadium costing more than $5 million in public or private money, a direct result of the Bieter bids to get a venue.

But Expo Idaho lies outside Boise city limits on unincorporated Ada County land, the auction notes . That leaves it under the jurisdiction of the Ada County Board of Commissioners .

The auction does not include any plans to revamp Memorial Stadium, home of the Boise Hawks baseball team. Boise lost its Major League affiliation in 2020 as MLB contracted 25% of its minor league teams. Hawks President/Partner Jeff Eiseman pointed to the aging Memorial Stadium as the reason why, the Statesman previously reported .

The Hawks now compete in the independent Pioneer League. They signed a $1-per-year lease with the county in 1989 that runs through 2038, the Statesman previously reported.