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A minor league pro soccer team — or maybe two — could be playing in Snohomish County within the next five years in Everett or Snohomish.
The United Soccer League (USL) is actively having early and preliminary conversations with Everett representatives about expanding to Everett, but things will hinge on whether a new stadium is built downtown or if the plan is to renovate Funko Field.
The Everett conversations are preliminary but they’re “going well,” Everett AquaSox baseball team co-owner Chad Volpe said. “There’s optimism and excitement.”
Everett delegates are conversing with the league’s deputy CEO.
The idea in the downtown stadium concept is the soccer field would share the space of the baseball field. Funko Field can’t fit a soccer field, Volpe said.
Meanwhile, the Snohomish Sky semi-pro team is looking to be accepted into the USL, team president Jamie Bialek said. An answer is expected in the coming weeks. The games would be in Snohomish at a new sports complex in Snohomish that’s in the works, she said. She’s the owner of the Snohomish Sports Dome.
How “pro” is this league? In the men’s U.S. soccer ladder, the USL’s championship division is a Division II league that’s a close step below Major League Soccer (MLS) that has the Seattle Sounders. There are minor pro rungs below it called the USL League One, and below that, the USL League Two.
As for Everett, which site council leaders select around December will definitively decide if talks continue because Funko Field is too small.
Officials say the prospects of a USL soccer team could reshape the funding conversation related to building a downtown stadium.
By recent estimates, rehabilitating Funko Field would cost $66 million. The downtown site would cost $137 million, of which $77 million would be construction and buying land being $25 million of the total.
The AquaSox plans to use the stadium for at least 66 dates. The USL would add 40 dates, Volpe said, so the two combined would fill the stadium 106 days of the year. The city idealized having the facility attract big performance shows, too.
State Rep. and Everett City Councilwoman Mary Fosse is excited to hear soccer talks are going well.
“We’ll need to have more creative ways to have revenue, and having soccer in the mix” adds to that, Fosse said.
Having the USL would be a regional draw, said Tammy Dunn, the executive director of the Snohomish County Sports Commission. It would bring down fans from as north as Bellingham, similar to the draw from other semi-pro sports.
“We are a soccer community,” Dunn said.
Other baseball stadiums have soccer fields, Dunn said. The opportunity’s there.
Designing the stadium will take most of 2025, and construction will start as late as March 2026, with move-in planned in 2027, under paperwork the city sent to the state.
Fosse said she had suggested making the future stadium a dual-use site. Somebody knew somebody at the USL, and things began snowballing.
“Now it’s becoming like a feasible option and would be a revenue generator,” Fosse said.
The minor-pro USL League One has the Spokane Velocity, and soon, a Portland team.
The pre-pro USL League Two is split out into regional divisions. The USL2 Northwest Division has eight teams from Washington and Oregon, with the closest three being in King County.
The USL has a women’s pro Super League and its lower W League. Spokane has a team in the Super League. The USL’s W Northwest division for women will expand next year with a Seattle team associated with Ballard FC. There are five teams in the W Northwest division.
