MILWAUKEE, Wis. – When Milwaukee Pro Soccer was publicly unveiled in October of 2022, it was touted as “the people’s team” by team owner Jim Kacmarcik.
“This will be a team for all of Milwaukee,” said Kacmarcik at the time, while also laying out plans for an 8,000 seat stadium, apartments, a hotel, and two concert venues on the land.
But since then, the people have heard very little about the development.
The stadium, which would serve as the anchor tenant of the “Iron District”, has been tapped to one day host a United Soccer League Championship-tier team, along with the Marquette University men’s and women’s soccer teams and men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. In the years following the unveiling, the 11-acre site just northeast of the Marquette Interchange remains largely unchanged. Save for the Michigan Commons apartment complex, which began welcoming tenants in August of 2024, next to no signs of life have been seen at the site. Plans for the smaller concert venue have been scrapped, the old Milwaukee Insurance building remains near 8th and Michigan, and weeds and trash have accumulated on the still vacant land where the stadium is planned to be built.
But while little has been made public about the status of the development from team ownership, the USL, or the City, conversations behind the scenes indicate, at least privately, interest is growing in the land should Milwaukee Pro Soccer not pan out.
On September 11, 2025, City of Milwaukee Director of Innovation James Bohl emailed several City leaders including head of the Department of City Development Lafayette Crump indicating the Potawatomi tribe had expressed interest in acquiring the land currently used by Marquette University for its Valley Fields soccer site. While a later email suggested Marquette was no longer interested in working with the Potawatomi on a possible land sale, the Bohl email mentions their primary location of interest to move their operations to: the Iron District site sold by MU to Bear Development in May of 2022 “should it become evident that the soccer stadium is a no go”.
Former Milwaukee alderman Michael D’Amato, who serves public relations firm Schreiber GR in an “of counsel” capacity “specializing in matters in the Milwaukee metro area”, referenced the Iron District project “limbo” in a follow-up email to Bohl October 16. He talked over the phone with Marquette Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Joel Pogodzinski the day before, according to the email, who indicated there wasn’t likely to be interest in a deal with the Potawatomi.
“I suspect what MU really wants is that land back for their intermural fields and dome and that’s the only way they leave the valley. I’m afraid the soccer stadium is on weak legs. Looking for alternate sites,” D’Amato wrote to Bohl.
D’Amato did not respond to a request for comment.
The email also includes a reference by Crump to a tour of land sites for the week of October 20. Crump confirmed to WTMJ November 18 the tour occurred, but that he did not attend.
“I know there are a plethora of conversations going on with them about trying to keep the pro soccer viable,” said Crump, while reaffirming his belief the project would still happen.
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While Marquette spokesperson Kevin Conway did not comment on the details of the emails, he did not deny that a tour occurred or that there was interest by the university in the land should Milwaukee Pro Soccer fail to come to fruition. He did note that there were no representatives from Marquette on the October tour.
“Marquette is grateful to be a part of the vibrant Menomonee River Valley and remains supportive of ongoing development and efforts to bring professional soccer to the Iron District adjacent to campus,” Conway told WTMJ.
Under the current plans for the Iron District, Marquette men’s and women’s soccer as well as the school’s lacrosse teams would play their games at the new stadium while maintaining the Valley Fields location as a practice site.
While there has been no formal groundbreaking on the soccer stadium itself, there have been conversations about it at Milwaukee City Hall. In August of 2024, attorney Bruce Keyes with Foley & Lardner, which is assisting Bear Development in the project, emailed Crump regarding potential tax exemption on the site. Wisconsin Statute 70.11(36) was created in 1991 to “promote the presence of professional sports teams that participate in league competition on a multi-state basis,” according to Keyes.
As written, the exemption ensures that both the stadiums themselves and associated facilities are not subject to general property taxation; a subsection specifically references football stadiums like Lambeau Field in Green Bay, but the general statute applies to any professional sports stadium. Keyes mentioned that while “it is not widely used”, it has been used before in the City of Milwaukee. He did not clarify in what instances the statute was applied.
Alderman Bob Bauman, whose district includes the land that could one day hold the Iron District, indicated in an email to WTMJ he had not had communication with the project developers “in over a year, maybe two years”, and that he was unaware of any possible outside interest in the site. Still, Bauman is confident in Bear and Kacmarcik to deliver on the site.
“What I do know is that the developer/owner is a solid entity with a proven record of completing projects,” he said.
The last notable update on the Milwaukee Pro Soccer project came last February, when a posting by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue indicated the site had been sold by West Michigan Investments, LLC, a Bear Real Estate Group affiliate, to MDC Iron District LLC, which is an affiliate of Milwaukee Development Corp. MDC is a nonprofit subsidiary of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. The land was sold for $9.3 million, linked to MDC accepting a grant for the same amount tabbed for the stadium in 2023 by Governor Tony Evers via American Rescue Plan Act funds from the Biden administration.
At the time, Milwaukee Pro Soccer’s Chief Operations Officer Conor Caloia told WTMJ they would be sharing more information on project updates later this spring.” That window came and went with no update.
At the same time, Bear CEO S.R. Mills told our news partners at The Milwaukee Business Journal he anticipated breaking ground on the stadium and connected hotel and events venue by early to mid-summer. Mills said he expected stadium construction to take 14 to 16 months in order to begin play at the start of the 2026 USL season. But if groundbreaking were to begin today and construction were to take the maximum time period offered by Mills, the stadium would not be ready for use until March of 2027.
Mills did not respond to a request for an update on the project’s timeline.
USL stadium delays are not uncommon among potential expansion teams; a team in Des Moines, Iowa was originally supposed to begin play in 2025, but work on a stadium site still has not begun due to a funding gap of nearly $20 million. Expansion efforts in Jacksonville, Santa Barbara, and Buffalo have all encountered delays in stadium construction for various reasons.
While talks regarding the stadium site beyond the Marquette interest remain limited, there is a documented interest in the surrounding Iron District property from another possible tenant: The Betty Brinn Children’s Museum.
In January of 2025, an email from museum CEO Tina Quealy includes two possible Iron District sites for the new museum building. One potential location is near the corner of North 6th Street and West Michigan Avenue, which communication from DCD Deputy Director Sam Leichtling suggests is “a very prominent site with good visibility”, though the department “would discourage any new surface parking at this location”.
The second location would repurpose a still-standing building two blocks down Michigan on North 8th Street that served as the former home of Milwaukee Insurance until 2014. Leichtling cites existing underground parking and the cost-effectiveness of redeveloping an existing structure as pros to the space.
The other four locations listed include three along the lakefront, with the seemingly preferred destination by City officials being in the proposed Lakefront Gateway Plaza across Lincoln Memorial Drive from the Couture high-rise. The former Pfister & Vogel Leather Company Building in Walker’s Point (607 W. Virginia Street) is listed as a sixth option. Quealy indicated the future museum home would need to be “accessible, safe, and convenient for caregivers with small children and grandparents”.
A representative from the museum declined a request for an update on the site search.
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