BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – A Buffalo-born sports executive’s dream of founding a professional soccer team in Western New York is ending after he has won the expansion rights to the USL Championship, America’s second-highest men’s professional league. Breathed new life into it.
Peter Marlette Jr., a former overseas pro who resigned as general manager of a championship-winning professional team in Omaha to lead the effort, envisions an aggressive schedule. He hopes the team will begin competing just two years from now. His group, Buffalo Pro Soccer, also plans to bring a top women's team to the area.
“There are three things I've always loved throughout my life: football, my family and the city of Buffalo,” Marlette said in a sit-down interview with News 4 ahead of Thursday's official announcement. “I'm here to strive to create community assets that will outlast all of us.”
To make his vision a reality, Marlette needs what Buffalo football has always needed: financial support and a stadium.
He is undaunted by the challenge.
“We still have a long way to go in terms of actually writing checks, but we're on track in terms of conversations and interest with people and groups who want to write checks,” Marlette said. . “So we're very confident in our ability to make that happen.”
USL takes a long look at Buffalo
Buffalo fans have been made fun of in pro football before. The Western New York Flash boasted some of the best women's players on the planet until the club was sold to a North Carolina group in 2017. Expectations for the USL Championship increased in 2019 when Connecticut-based developer John McClatchy won the rights to launch a men's professional team here. , but his plan did not come true.
USL said it has a strong interest in the Buffalo market and believes Marlette's group is genuine.
“We know we have the right people,” said Justin Papadakis, deputy CEO of the United Soccer League. “Since Peter started working on this, we have made great progress on all fronts, especially on the stadium side. We have multiple locations and active discussions are taking place with relevant stakeholders. .”
In the American professional soccer pyramid, only Major League Soccer (MLS) surpasses the USL Championship. However, unlike European leagues, American leagues do not have a promotion and relegation system.
USL Championship teams play 34 regular season games from March to October. The average attendance last season was just over 5,800 per game. Games will be streamed on his ESPN+ and some will be broadcast on his ESPN2.
Papadakis said the USL is working to launch teams in approximately 50 markets across the three divisions, but feels Buffalo is one of its top destinations.
“We know Buffalo knows sports. The affinity of sports fans in Buffalo is higher than anywhere else in the nation,” Papadakis said. “And we know they support professional soccer teams just like any other sport. They'll expect results. Coming to the home of the USL team in Pittsburgh and Detroit and Buffalo. It's going to be a tough day for other fans who want to do it.”
“A wealth of options” for stadiums
Buffalo Pro Soccer's stadium plan, also scheduled to open in 2026, would be nowhere near the size of the new Buffalo Bills stadium, which would cost well over $1 billion.
Marlette, a 35-year-old Nichols College graduate, wants to build a modular outdoor stadium with about 10,000 covered seats. He said the stadium could be fully customized to the club's specifications and could be prefabricated and assembled on site. He believes a project of this size could be completed in about a year at a cost of just $15 million.
Asked about cost, Marlette said: “That's one of the benefits of building a modular stadium.” “I showed the modular architects some of our favorite sites we had identified in Buffalo and locations that seemed most viable. They gave me a rough estimate and some designs. And yeah, it's within that range.
“Listen,” he added, “if someone wants to, if there's a major owner who wants to build a $100 million football stadium, we can do that too. These can be built as needed. But $15 million is enough to build one.”
Marlette's group is considering potential stadium sites throughout the city and in some suburbs. He declined to say what specific locations are being considered, but said downtown Buffalo is “probably the ideal location.”
“Wherever someone in the city of Buffalo is considering building a stadium, we've looked at it and talked about it,” Marlette said. “That's a huge list.”
One location not currently under consideration is the current or future Buffalo Bills Stadium.
Marlette said the possibility of playing a game at Bills Stadium was “a very serious conversation” for McClatchy's previous group, but Orchard Park was not the ideal location he envisioned. I haven't thought about it.
“I've identified a few sites that we've already partnered with the league, local officials, local individuals, and we're having very positive conversations about those sites with local government, state government, (or) if it's a private site. , the owners or developers of those sites,” Marlette said. “At this point, we actually have a wealth of options and we need to choose the one that best suits the city and this project.”
Will there be public subsidies for the stadium?
“I think this stadium and this club can be largely privately financed,” Marlette said. And since some of the sites we've identified are state-owned or city-owned, a lot of that will depend on the site. ”
need investors
Marlette's official title is President of Buffalo Pro Soccer. To get the project off the ground, he needs to take on the role of primary owner.
U.S. Soccer sets professional league standards for franchises at each level of play, listing requirements such as market size, stadium seating, and ownership. The principal owner of a USL Championship level club must own at least his 35% of the team and have a net worth of approximately $30 million.
Mr Marlett has perfected his pitch with the help of consultant Forrest Eber and believes now is the perfect time for investors to get into the ground floor of football clubs.
“The USL Championship is a very stable, very profitable league that markets all over the United States are looking to get into,” Marlette said. “And they can be very selective about who they let in.”
He believes soccer is well-positioned for growth in the United States, thanks in part to a series of international tournaments scheduled to be held on U.S. soil, with no tournament as big as the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This summer, the Copa America and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will also be held in the United States. The bids of the United States and Mexico are also on the shortlist to host the 2027 Women's World Cup, with the winner expected to be announced in May.
“Soccer is already a hugely popular sport, but the runway to 2026 is once in a lifetime for the sport,” Marlett said.
Marlette hopes to finalize ownership by the end of 2024 and have shovels in the ground by early 2025. Further information for potential investors is available at BuffaloProSoccer.com.
Team name, FC Buffalo, women's team, etc.
Buffalo already has a soccer team. FC Buffalo is a top-level amateur club that plays in the fourth tier of the U.S. Soccer pyramid and has been building a fan base for nearly 15 years. Marlette views FC Buffalo as a strong local partner and believes there is room for both clubs to coexist.
“Instead of competing with each other, I think they actually complement each other very well,” Marlette said, adding that he would be happy to offer FC Buffalo players their first professional contracts. Marlett himself is an FC Buffalo alumnus, having spent five seasons with the club after playing in the Australian second division.
It's unlikely that Marlette's team will adopt FC Buffalo branding, but he doesn't have a team name, logo or colors in mind. He will seek feedback from the community and make decisions based on input from supporters.
“We have witnessed the strong growth of the USL Championship from the perspective of the highest level of amateur soccer in USL League 2, and we are working closely with Buffalo Pro Soccer to bring the world's greatest talent from the youth fields of Western New York to America's greatest. FC Buffalo owner Nick Mendola said in a statement. “This is an important and exciting step forward that builds on the foundation we have built to increase Buffalo’s passion for the game.”
To compete at the professional level, it is necessary to search internationally for top players and coaches. Marlette said the average player in the USL Championship earns about $50,000, but top players can earn much more.
Marlette is also excited to earn the right to field a team in the USL Super League, this year's Division I women's professional league opener, comparable to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Both teams will share the same stadium, but the women's team's debut could be delayed by a year.
“I was very intentional about making sure those rights were included,” he said.
If stadium construction is not completed by the time Marlette's team begins play in the USL Championship, the team may temporarily play in another USL-compliant stadium.
However, such a scenario does not occupy much space in Marlette's head. He is thinking only about the future with all his might.
“I left a very good job with a very successful team in Omaha. I turned down other jobs to do this job,” Marlette said. “Because I think anyone who invests in this project will get a big return and be very happy with their investment.”
He has already convinced USL Deputy CEO Papadakis, who sees the stars aligning in Buffalo.
“The USL is in a different place and I think women's soccer is in a different place,” Papadakis said, comparing the bid to the 2019 effort. “When you put those pieces together, I think we have all the pieces to not only get over the line this time, but to make this team a huge success.”
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Nick Veronica is a Buffalo native who joined the News 4 team in 2021 as Digital Executive Producer. Previously he worked at NBC Sports and Buffalo News. You can follow Nick on Facebook. twitter And the thread.Click here to see more of his work.
