What to know about $40M soccer stadium proposed at Reno's South Valleys Regional Park

The Biggest Little City could be home to professional soccer once again, if plans for a South Reno soccer stadium are approved.

The Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission received a $40 million proposal for an outdoor soccer stadium and training facility in South Valleys Regional Park in late June. Wendy Damonte, executive director of the Martis Camp Foundation on behalf of the nonprofit For Our Fans Foundation, presented the unsolicited proposal in May to fulfill the regional park’s master plan blueprints.

The proposed soccer stadium would be designated for professional soccer for men and women. Damonte said the United Soccer League is interested in placing a team in Reno.

“Representatives from USL have been out here to meet with me over the last year,” Damonte told the open space board. “They want soccer out here, and they want Reno.”

The stadium is still a concept and just a proposal, as the foundation said it hopes to get approval from the parks commission before organizers can present their agreement outline to the board of county commissioners.

Proposed USL Reno stadium wouldn't just be for pro soccer

Bob Enzenberger, board chair of FOFF, said the stadium will be for professional soccer, but the foundation also wants to open the stadium up to other community events, including graduations, lacrosse games, youth soccer games, tournaments, University of Nevada-Reno games and more.

“The current stadium proposal will not only complete the public’s wishes for the needed multi-use fields in the park, but it will also do so in a way that benefits the entire community,” Enzenberger told the parks commission.

Damonte said it would take much less than a year of construction since the project is expected to be built somewhere else, shipped over and put together in pieces.

If the proposal is approved, the foundation will maintain the facility and stadium. The proposal also includes an area for parking units, which will be a shared maintenance responsibility since parkgoers will be able to access parking too.

Since only conceptual discussions and drawings for the regional park have taken place, FOFF swooped in to complete the structuring of the park, originally proposed in the park’s master plan from 2015.

The plan has needed an update since Dr. Massoud Dorostkar donated roughly 22 acres of land in 2009.

A similar plan was proposed in 2016 when the Greater Reno Community Ice Skating Association donated $40,000 seeking to build the Reno Ice rink in the location. The association received approval for the rink from an unsolicited proposal, which is how FOFF aims to get the go-ahead for the soccer stadium.

During the community outreach meetings for the master plan, Enzenberger said, an “overwhelming number” of people wished for an indoor recreation facility and additional multi-use fields. He said Washoe County doesn’t have the funding to allocate to the parks for these projects.

Eric Crump, director of the county’s community services, said the remaining acreage from the donated land mapped out in the master plan was outlined for things such as a facility and stadium, but it had still not been touched.

“About half of the park is still undeveloped,” Crump told the open space board. “This would basically line that footprint.”

FOFF stepped in to provide the funding to create these in substitution of the county.

Damonte told the RGJ she didn’t want to give away too many details and get the community’s hopes up, since the plan is merely a concept for now. However, she said the foundation hopes that eventually the entire sports community can feel welcome in the space.

“It’s just a great asset for the community to have something fun to do for the community. We just think soccer is growing in popularity and … our community is growing and we have so many new residents,” Damonte said.

Funding for proposed South Valleys Regional Park soccer stadium

At the Washoe County Commission on Tuesday, Washoe County resident Marc Radow questioned why the county was considering a proposal to rent regional park's Wedge Parkway acreage to a private user at the rate of a dollar per year for 20 years.

In response, officials said the one-dollar hold is just a temporary placeholder.

FOFF said it will negotiate the rent price with county staff and commissioners when a draft is put together. The price will also depend on the results of a property appraisal to be done to see the value of the land.

The organization also told the open space board that a percentage of the rent money would be designated to the parks’ fund, instead of being deposited into the county’s general funds.

However, the project is a public-private partnership, meaning the organization will use investors to fund the $40 million for creating the facility and stadium. The foundation said it will use part of the sales price to recoup funds for their investors.

Commissioner Lisa Rode asked if revenue sharing would make better sense than paying a rent in the partnership since the plan requires investors that would have to see expected values before they’d choose to invest.

However, the previous Reno pro soccer team, Reno 1868 FC, had an average attendance of roughly 3,400 to 3,600 attendees, with the average ticket price being $24, according to Damonte. She said she expects a similar number of attendees plus possibly a bit more at the USL games.

Reno 1868 played in the USL Championship league, a Division II league and the highest of the three. The United Soccer League also oversees USL League One, which has teams in West Coast cities including Fresno and Spokane, and USL League Two, which has teams in Davis, Turlock and a handful of cities in the Bay Area. Damonte said the proposed stadium would be for a USL League One team.

Rode said she wanted a general number or percentage of sales that would go to parks, and she asked what percentage would be going to investors. Damonte said it is something the foundation can’t predict right now.

At the June meeting, Damonte said the foundation has investors interested, but none have signed on yet. She also said all interested investors are in the community and the goal is to do it with local investors. Rode said she liked the idea of keeping it local.

Why did the commissioners postpone the USL proposal?

The open space board received the proposal in May and inadvertently moved to stage two of contracting the process, as the commission was confused on what they were voting on. However, a special meeting was called to further discuss the proposal in June.

Commissioner Michaelangelo Aranda said the arena and parking will be very close to residential areas, so his biggest concern was for traffic and noise mitigation. He suggested using Virginia Street as an access point for the stadium to help with traffic but wasn't sure how residents were going to feel about the high levels of noise a stadium brings.

“I know that this will suffice with the … original master plan, but the original master plan, I don’t think imagined at any time 5,500 people cheering on an amazing Reno team,” Aranda said.

Aaron Smith, business intelligence program manager for the county’s community services department who has been working with FOFF, said that since it is just a conceptual project, traffic and noise will not be discussed in detail until the planning and permitting process. He said the public will be involved in the process, per typical county stipulations.

However, because it is a public-private partnership, the county’s typical process of community meetings for all stakeholders and other people involved hasn’t occurred yet. Smith said the county still has to decide if they want a partnership since they are in the conceptual stage of deciding if it is worth using staff time to pursue.

“Before we enter into an agreement with them, we want to make sure that it makes sense for us before we spend a lot of time doing it,” Smith said.

Commissioner Miles Gurtler also said the community hadn’t been notified of any changes since the 2015 rough conceptual plan and he said they should have some say in what’s happening before the county jumps into the agreement.

“I think people have valid concerns,” Gurtler said. “They moved into this area without this facility being there or even being proposed or in the master plan, so it’s not like they chose to move into this area like maybe young folks would.”

Damonte said that Reno, Sparks and Washoe County have no other land that they’ve discovered available for the project, and since the park’s master plan aligns with the stadium and facility, they thought it was the proper location choice.

However, she said communities are typically ecstatic about the stadium environment, citing Dallas’ The Star stadium as an example.

Chair Kevin Joell agreed some residents would be attracted to the stadium environment, but he said it is not in the “urban core” of the city but in a residential area.

“I think that most of the people in that area probably chose to live in that area because it was more suburban,” Joell said.

Damonte said there are many suburban areas where large teams have had stadiums, including the Rhode Island USL stadium, the Orange County USL stadium, the Antelope Valley USL team’s stadium and the under-development stadium in Roswell , Georgia. Condos, apartments and housing are being put all around the stadiums, which is a model the foundation thinks is “fantastic” and useful for Reno, Damonte said.

“All those people that live there will have great access within walking distance to go see games, have fun with their family and walk home," Damonte told the RGJ. "We think it’s an ideal situation."

Even in downtown Reno, Damonte cited the brand-new Ballpark Apartments and other complexes being built next door to the Reno Aces’s Greater Nevada Field.

Reno community voices concerns over United Soccer League proposal

So far, the nearby community doesn’t seem to share the joy of the new stadium plan.

At the county commission meeting, Radow pleaded for residents and the community to stand up against the project being built in a residential area.

“Washoe County is about to trample on fellow Washoe County residents, homeowners and taxpayers,” Radow said. “This is happening without we the people knowing about this calamity being bestowed upon us.”

“I urge everybody to express their will that Washoe County does not meddle in private affairs and private business.”

Other public commenters also expressed concerns at the open space board meeting.

Reno resident Tiffany Talafuse said she was concerned about the “negative impacts” of such a large stadium in the area.

“While I am not against a venue of the nature in Reno, I do feel that another location should be determined,” Talafuse said in her emailed public comment . “This area is way too congested as is and would affect anyone living off of Wedge Parkway.”

She asked for more detailed traffic studies on the matter and a survey with nearby residents and landowners.

Lynda Mahorter told the commission she was concerned about the location being “very problematic” with traffic and noise.

“Build it near the convention center where there will be plenty of parking and no apartments and homes,” Mahorter wrote in her public comment email.

Joell told the board and presenters that seeing this many public commenters at his commission raised the warning bells on the project.

“We got, I believe, eight comments on this item, which is a large amount for parks commission,” Joell said with a laugh. “To get eight comments is pretty large for us and it appeared to me that most of those comments came from people that live in that neighborhood.”

“My interpretation of that is maybe this neighborhood is not in support of that stadium.”

Reno resident Dave Keyes told the commission he originally had some concerns about the lack of details on the project and felt like it wasn’t developed enough. However at the June meeting, when seeing the more descriptive maps and plans for parking and the project, Keyes said he was more reassured.

“I feel much better about that now,” Keyes said.

Where does USL's Reno stadium proposal go from here?

The proposal is set to come back to the parks commission to decide whether they recommend it to the county commissioners or not.

If approved, Smith said the foundation would take the proposal and final agreement proposal to the county commissioners. The item would initially be discussed at a board of commissioners meeting and then brought back with adjustments, changes or further negotiations for final board approval.

The final agreement would include rent numbers and would give authorization to the foundation to use the property and develop the land. If the commissioners give the project the final stamp of approval, the traditional process of planning, permitting and stakeholder input would take place.

However, Smith said there was no plan for community outreach until after the contract was signed. The community would give their input about the agreement only, during the public comment portion of the county commission meeting.

The community would then be able to give their input about the design and plans for the area, including traffic and noise mitigation plans, in the future stakeholders meetings during the planning process.

If the community doesn’t like the idea of the stakeholders and the foundation cannot fulfill the obligation of the permit, the permit is “essentially dead,” Smith said, so the permit granting is just the first step of a long design and plan process.

“This is being built by locals,” Damonte said in the first meeting. “People on my team have grandkids that are going to want to play in this stadium.

“It’s just different because we’re doing it with locals. We are from here, we live here, we care about this community.”

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: What to know about $40M soccer stadium proposed at Reno's South Valleys Regional Park