Pensacola officials are still talking with the United Soccer League about bringing professional soccer to the city, Mayor D.C. Reeves said Monday, but he cautioned key questions of stadium siting and funding remain unresolved.
“We continue to have conversations with them,” Reeves said at his weekly press conference.
USL operates professional men’s and women’s leagues in mid-sized markets across the country. In cities that land teams, expansion typically depends less on fan interest than on whether local leaders and investors can assemble a workable stadium plan — including land, infrastructure and a financing structure that can withstand taxpayer scrutiny.
Reeves said Pensacola has not reached that stage.
“The elephant in the room is the facility,” he said.
The USL update came as Pensacola and Escambia County await a consultant’s report on the future of the Pensacola Bay Center, the city’s main arena and event venue. Reeves said earlier in the press conference that he expected the report — about 130 pages — to be delivered by the end of the week, setting up joint discussions about possible renovations or other options.
With attention focused on major facilities, Reeves was asked whether the soccer effort is connected to the Bay Center debate. He said it is not.
“That has not been any part of my conversation with County Commissioners, City Council members, community members, anything else about a soccer stadium adjacent to the Bay Center or within this Bay Center project,” Reeves said.
He also pushed back on speculation about placing a stadium at the city’s Tech Park.
“There was a water cooler talk … that we were talking about wanting to put a soccer stadium at the Tech Park, which has never been considered, frankly,” Reeves said.
The USL effort has been public since at least last spring, when Pensacola announced it had entered a year-long exclusive negotiating period with the league to study the viability of bringing a franchise to the city.
In October, Reeves said the city was using that window to gauge local support, explore ownership interest, and evaluate possible sites downtown — while emphasizing that a long-term stopgap venue would not meet the league’s expectations.
"It's a prestigious league," he said. "... They're not going to play at (Ashton) Brosnaham (Park) or at Wahoo Stadium for five or six years waiting on a stadium."
Reeves said Monday that the city is not yet in a position to discuss how much public money, if any, might be involved in the project.
“We have had no conversations about how much money the city would put up if we were to build something versus private,” he said. “I think we're just too early for that.”
He suggested the next tangible milestone is identifying and controlling a site — something he described as largely outside City Hall.
“I think it's trying to find and control a site, which is really kind of in the court of USL,” Reeves said.
Site selection has been a recurring complication because a professional soccer venue requires more than open acreage. A workable layout must accommodate a full-size pitch, seating, and game-day operations, and it must fit within the constraints of surrounding streets, utilities, and event access.
Reeves said the league and local stakeholders continue to view Pensacola as a viable market — and he suggested the basic ingredients for a franchise, including potential local ownership, appear to be in place.
But he said the project ultimately rises or falls on whether those practical pieces can be assembled.
“I think all the other boxes are checked in terms of the market, in terms of there being viability of local ownership,” Reeves said.
