A new women’s professional soccer league is due to launch in 2026 and Cleveland was named as one of its 15 founding markets throughout the USA. Launch of WPSL Pro, the newest professional league in the U.S. soccer organizational pyramid, was formally announced today.
This follows efforts three years ago by local backers to secure rights to form a Major League Soccer (MLS) Next Pro team for Cleveland, which also is scheduled to start play next year. Local backers, led by the Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG), say Cleveland being named to the new league will bolster their efforts to build a soccer stadium here.
Cleveland is the only top-40 market in the U.S. lacking a soccer stadium or even having one under construction. CSG has proposed constructing a $50 million, 10,000-seat, modular-built stadium in Downtown Cleveland’s Gateway South, off Ontario Street and just south of the Inner Belt highway. Public and private funding is still being sought for that facility.
WPSL Pro emerged from the foundation of the Women’s Premier Soccer League, the largest amateur women’s soccer league in the world. It was sought to fill a gap in soccer’s organizational pyramid that will not only help develop America’s already globally strong women’s soccer talent base, but help neophyte pro soccer markets like Cleveland affordably get a foot in the door.
“WPSL Pro is the bridge that’s been missing — not just for players, but for the communities, investors and brands ready to be part of the next chapter in women’s sports,” said Sean Jones, co-founder of WPSL Pro, in a written statement.
A name has yet to be decided for the Cleveland team. WPSL Pro will be a Division II professional league but it is not designed to be a developmental league for the Division I leagues — the National Women’s Soccer League and the United Soccer League (USL) Super League, said CSG CEO Michael Murphy.
“It’s a very commercial league and robust league,” Murphy said of WPSL Pro in a phone interview with NEOtrans. “We think there’s a big demand for women’s professional soccer even in division two.”
He also said winning a WPSL Pro team doesn’t preclude CSG from continuing its pursuit of a NWSL franchise. Efforts to land its 16th franchise fell short last year to Denver which won the bid by offering to pay a $110 million franchise fee — double what Boston paid only a year earlier. But both Denver and Boston are having difficulty securing financing for their stadiums, according to media reports.
For WPSL Pro, its Web site notes that all league stadiums must have a minimum seating capacity of 1,000. Each team’s ownership group must demonstrate financial wherewithal to operate their team for three years.
In campaigning for a NWSL team, CSG secured season ticket pledges from 16,000 fans. Today, however, CSG will start taking deposits at its Web site for season ticket for its WPSL Pro team. The success of that effort will be watched closely by this and other soccer leagues.
“We had a remarkable campaign for women’s soccer last year and proved Cleveland is a powerful market for a pro team,” said Gina Prodan Kelly, CSG’s chief marketing officer. “WPSL Pro gives us the opportunity to do it right — for our fans, for Cleveland, and for the future of the game.”
The Cleveland Browns football team is seeking a new stadium in a 50/50 public-private partnership. But Murphy said he is not set yet on what the cost-sharing should be for a Cleveland soccer stadium. He said that share is still being negotiated.
However, he said any public financing for a soccer stadium would not come from new taxes nor take from funding for existing services. While that sounded like tax-increment financing based on the growth of tax revenues created by new purchases resulting from the presence of the soccer team here, Murphy declined to discuss specifics.
“We’ll look at anything that makes sense,” he said. “The diligence continues into the planned stadium property and initial designs are being drawn. I think we got a great project.”
In September 2024, the Cleveland Metroparks reached a purchase agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to acquire 13.6 acres of ODOT land for $4.25 million. The site would be for the soccer stadium and the Metroparks’ Trailhead Project, a public space where several all-purpose trails would link up.
Three months before, the Ohio General Assembly allocated $1 million for the “Cleveland Women’s Soccer Stadium” from the state’s two-year capital budget, calling it a “One-Time Strategic Community Investment.”
Last week, CSG issued a request for proposals (RFP) to communities to establish a 40- to 100-acre headquarters and training facility for the two professional soccer teams, plus youth soccer programs, clinics and more. Murphy said he has already received a dozen responses to the RFP from communities, mostly in Cuyahoga County.
The recently closed Notre Dame College on South Green Road in South Euclid has been considered by CSG for the training facility. And that 14-building, 48-acre campus is for sale. Murphy said the project is doable if the “stars align” and if soccer is only a part of a larger project there.
This week’s WPSL Pro announcement happens to coincide with MLS powerhouses Columbus Crew and Inter Miami CF playing each other on Saturday at Huntington Bank Field in Downtown Cleveland.
“This announcement timing was set by the (WPSL Pro) league,” Murphy added. “It wasn’t timed to try to tie into the buzz of that game. Once in a while things go your way.”
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