CLEVELAND — Soccer is having a moment in the City of Cleveland, with the Columbus Crew taking on inter Miami at Huntington Bank Field this weekend, the major league indoor soccer finals in town last weekend and now, landing a professional outdoor women's soccer team.

What You Need To Know

  • The soccer team will be only the second pro women’s sports team in Ohio after the Columbus Fury women's volleyball team

  • The new stadium will seat 10,000 and it will be just minutes away from Guardians and Cavaliers stadiums

  • The hope is that the stadium will bring up to 400,000 fans a year to downtown Cleveland with up to 60 events a year

“When we look at the international stage, it's the U.S. women that dominate the planet in soccer talent,” said Gina Prodan Kelly, chief marketing officer, Cleveland Soccer Group.

Cleveland will be home to a women's professional soccer league team starting in 2026.

“The passion and dedication of Cleveland’s sports fans is immeasurable,” Prodan Kelly said.

She added Cleveland’s Division II team will be part of the founding WPSL markets.

“We're really excited for this second division league to come in and fill that important void in Division II and continue to develop talent for not only this league to really get to see the amazingly talented female athletes in the United States, but also continue to up level that Division I,” Prodan Kelly said.

The team will play in a brand-new stadium to be built in South Gateway overlooking downtown Cleveland. Cleveland Soccer Group said it hopes to break ground this summer.

It will be a five-minute walk from the Guardian’s home plate and seven-minute walk from the Cavalier’s center court and down the street from Cleveland State University. But the group is doing it for more than just the fans.

“But also hopefully be able to give regional talent more access to that professional pathway. And we'd really love to see if we can be part of developing talent that gets onto the U.S. women's national senior team,” Prodan Kelly said.

The hope is the stadium will bring up to 400,000 fans a year to downtown Cleveland with up to 60 events a year. It will initially seat 10,000 and could eventually expand to hold 12,500.

The parties involved hope the $50 million stadium can be ready as soon as the fall of 2026.

“We're in the neighborhood where Clevelanders have been coming to cheer on their favorite sports teams for 30 years. So we couldn't think of a better place,” Prodan Kelly said.

This will be only the second pro women’s sports team in Ohio after the Columbus Fury women's volleyball team in Columbus.