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A soccer stadium development company that responded to Cleveland State University’s (CSU) offer to repurpose its Wolstein Center site is doing so without coordinating with a non-profit group that has been seeking to develop a soccer stadium at the Gateway South area.
On Thursday, CSU announced that its board of trustees voted to approve a recommendation to begin negotiations with the United Soccer League (USL) and a local company USL Cleveland, LLC on its proposal for a potential redevelopment of the current Wolstein Center site, 2000 Prospect Ave. in Downtown Cleveland.
But this was done without coordination with, and apparently without consideration of an already existing effort to bring professional soccer to Downtown Cleveland, in an area south of the Inner Belt highway dubbed Gateway South.
That effort is led by the Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) with support by the Cleveland Metroparks which has an option to purchase land for the stadium and for a hub of all-purpose trails converging from the southeast side of downtown. Also Len Komoroski, former CEO of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Rock Entertainment Group, is a CSG investor.
When NEOtrans asked two of CSG’s principals, CEO Michael Murphy and Chief Marketing Officer Gina Prodan Kelly, if there was coordination between CSG’s effort and CSU’s, Kelly responded, saying “Thanks for continuing to help tell the story of soccer in Cleveland — there’s a book on this in your future.”
But that doesn’t mean CSG is pulling back on its efforts to build a $50 million, modular, 10,000-seat soccer stadium on 13.6 acres of land currently owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation. The Metroparks has an option to buy the land for $4.25 million plus transaction costs, both of which are to be paid by CSG.
Instead, CSG says it would like to break ground on the new stadium before the end of this year along with announcing the names and brands for two new pro soccer teams — a men’s Major League Soccer (MLS) Next Pro franchise and a Cleveland team in a new Women’s Premier Soccer League Pro (WPSL Pro) league.
No specific groundbreaking date has been set and no project financing has been announced yet. Nor do they have any interest in repurposing the huge Huntington Bank Field on downtown’s lakefront. Instead, the goal is to get the two soccer teams playing at South Gateway in a couple of years.
“We are moving full steam ahead with our South Gateway project — completing the vision for the Gateway District and extending the city’s Shore-to-Core-to-Shore plan,” CSG’s Kelly told NEOtrans. “We look forward to announcing our team brands later this year and kicking off in 2027.”
NEOtrans broke the story in May that CSG is adding another property to its South Gateway portfolio. CSG’s Murphy confirmed that his group has a purchase agreement to acquire a half-acre property formerly used by Cleveland Black Oxide at 836 Broadway Ave.
The group also began seeking in April a training complex somewhere in Northeast Ohio. But Kelly said there’s nothing to announce publicly on that front.
“We love that since we announced pro soccer coming to Cleveland three years ago, the energy and enthusiasm of our fans have gotten the nation’s attention,” Kelly added. Cleveland is the largest metro area in the country without a professional soccer stadium or one under construction.
Meanwhile, CSU in March issued a Request for Qualifications to seek interest and partners on redeveloping the 34-year-old Wolstein Center arena and its 10-acre state-owned property to align with CSU’s master plan. Then in May, CSU issued a request for proposals to seek ideas on reusing the site.
CSU chose USL Cleveland, LLC, a company formed in 2022 by Kevin Patrick Murphy — a partner in the Real Estate and Business Services Group at Walter Haverfield, a large Cleveland-based law firm. He apparently is no relation to CSG’s Murphy.
In October 2024, USL Cleveland added a partner, Timothy Junglas, according to state records. Junglas is owner of a Chesterland-based real estate firm JBird Ventures incorporated in 2018.
Previously, Junglas was director of investments and new business at Legacy Capital Partners of Lyndhurst. Legacy Capital Partners is a national real estate private equity firm founded by local heavy hitters David St. Pierre and Mitchell Schneider.
The number of seats or other indicators of scale of the new soccer stadium haven’t been revealed. CSU says it may be several years before the Wolstein Center is razed for a new stadium. Mixed-use development is planned around USL Cleveland’s stadium as it is at the Gateway South site, too. In June, Ohio created a $1.7 billion Ohio Cultural and Sports Facility Performance Grant Fund that can finance these stadiums plus so called “ballpark villages.”
NEOtrans reached out to Murphy and Junglas at USL Cleveland, plus others who worked with them in the past, but has yet to hear back from them. We also reached out to the USL about any desires to add a team to the Cleveland market but we haven’t heard back from them either.
Ironically, USL has two teams in Northeast Ohio already, albeit developmental league teams in its League Two — Cleveland Force SC and Akron City FC. USL League Two is a tier below MLS NEXT Pro and US League One. Above that is USL Championship, but still a notch below the top tier, Major League Soccer.
Last week, local businesspersons announced plans to bring another USL League Two team to Northeast Ohio, potentially playing at the Lake Erie Crushers baseball stadium in Lorain County. Komoroski is also chairman and managing partner of the Lake Erie Crushers.
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