A site plan of the 18 acres on which Alliance Sports plans to build a home soccer stadium for Union Omaha. Around it would be practice fields, housing, retail, a hotel, pickleball courts and parking. (Courtesy of Alliance Sports)
Dream with me for a moment.
Imagine driving into downtown Omaha and seeing a state-of-the-art professional soccer stadium as a part of the city’s gateway and hearing the roar of thousands of soccer fans fill the air. Omaha already knows the thrill of exciting crowds with the College World Series at Schwab Field and March Madness at the CHI Health Center. Now, there’s a unique opportunity to add the world’s fastest-growing sport to that tradition: professional soccer in downtown Omaha.
But this isn’t a far-off fantasy — it’s already taking shape.
To make this a reality, Union Omaha, the city’s pro-soccer team, is working on plans to build a new home for the club with surrounding development. Our inspiration for this vision is drawn from Omaha itself.
We admire the visionaries who came before us — the leaders who dreamed of a convention center to attract national and international events, who reconnected Omaha to its roots with the Missouri River through the Back to the River project, and who ensured the College World Series would call this city home with a new baseball stadium. Their bold ideas, along with the leaders of the parks’ renaissance, the premier arts and culture venues, and restaurateur and entertainment efforts, inspire the plans of Union Omaha, and we aim to bring a new sport to downtown, creating a soccer-specific stadium that will carry Omaha’s legacy of bold ideas, spirited competition, and community gatherings into the future.
This project isn’t just about creating a venue for professional matches; it’s a vision for a vibrant campus that includes housing, retail, dining, and a hotel, attracting tourists, investors and community members alike. The entire city will benefit from this forward-thinking development — through jobs, tourism and new opportunities that will transform the immediate area and enhance community wellness.
Soccer, in particular, will serve as another important community wellness offering, especially popular among youths and the 18- 34-year-old age range, further engaging this key demographic in healthy, active and fun lifestyles.
This ambitious project will be supported by investors across multiple sectors: a public private partnership for the stadium; private development for the retail and residential developments; and a separate nonprofit entity focused on youth soccer engagement. The combination of these separate efforts on the same campus ensures that while private development brings economic growth, philanthropy will support Union Omaha to continue making a difference where it counts most — our community’s youth.
By concentrating on youth soccer programs, especially in North and South Omaha, Union Omaha’s nonprofit arm will partner with community organizations and engage the next generation in meaningful ways. This vision seeks to eliminate barriers like the “pay to play” model and provide access to top-level soccer programming. Omaha’s youth will not just have new fields to play on — they will be coached and mentored by professional players, fostering leadership and development opportunities that reach far beyond the game. This is a model that could inspire other cities, making Omaha a leader in inclusive, community-centered youth soccer.
The new stadium will help move Union Omaha up to the USL Championship and elevate the city’s profile, providing a venue capable of hosting national and international events. This new facility will position Omaha as a premier destination for professional soccer and major events across the Midwest, enhancing the city’s relevance on the national sports stage.
To show how serious we are about this vision, earlier this week it was announced that we have sold the Storm Chasers baseball team to a nationally renowned organization that will bring further investment to the team, anchored in Papillion. Our acquisition of the Storm Chasers in 2012 was the beginning of our efforts and vision to create and enhance professional sports in Omaha. The decision to sell frees up Union Omaha’s ownership to focus full-time on the transformative vision for a stadium home for the team.
The project represents an unparalleled opportunity for Omaha to tap into the rapidly growing popularity of soccer in the U.S., where it’s already the second most popular sport for people ages 18-34. With this stadium, we’re not just building for today, we’re building for the future.
We stand at the edge of something extraordinary.
This is more than just a stadium; it’s more than just a new development with housing, restaurants and youth soccer facilities, it’s the next critical step in building upon the incredible investments already made in Omaha and will further activate the downtown area, inspiring our youth, entertaining and retaining a workforce and cementing our city’s place on the national soccer stage. We will not just build a stadium — we will contribute to Omaha’s future: pro-soccer is pro-Omaha.
This isn’t a dream. It’s happening, and it’s happening soon.
Local News
