A USL club playing in a new riverfront stadium is the "linchpin" for a proposed $400M redevelopment of downtown Pawtucket that city and state officials note will be "bigger and better" than a minor-league ballpark proposal that collapsed over a year ago, according to a front-page piece by Patrick Anderson of the PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. Developer Fortuitous Partners Founder & Partner Brett Johnson "wants to launch a Rhode Island franchise" in the USL, with the club playing in a $45M, 7,500-seat soccer stadium Fortuitous "plans to build." The stadium would be the "first piece of a larger, multi-part, mixed-use project Fortuitous is calling 'Tidewater Landing.'" The plan hinges on approximately $70-90M in public assistance. Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and Rhode Island Secretary of Commerce Stefan Pryor yesterday said that if the Fortuitous project "pans out, it will generate more economic activity and jobs" than the proposed ballpark would have. The soccer stadium also "makes up a much smaller part of [the] project than the ballpark did" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 12/3).
OTHER FEATURES: PRO SOCCER USA's Julian Cardillo noted the new Pawtucket USL club "would begin play" in '22. The league "currently fields 34 teams in the second tier of professional soccer" in the U.S. The proposed development will "include 200 housing units; a 200-room hotel; 100,000 square feet of retail, food and community spaces; and 200,000 square feet of commercial office space." State officials said that the soccer stadium also will be "available for concerts and public sporting events" (PROSOCCERUSA.com, 12/2).
