From "Will Soccer Survive?" to "What's the ROI?": How Stadium Deals, Site Selection, and Mixed-Use Are Reshaping U.S. Pro Soccer

If you want to understand how professional soccer clubs get built, financed, and scaled in the U.S., don't start with tactics.

Start with infrastructure and deal mechanics.

In this edition of Soccer Insider, I sat down with Mark McCullers (Principal) and Cortland McCullers (Director of Client Services) from The McCullers Group, one of the most active firms working at the intersection of soccer, stadium delivery, public-private partnerships, and mixed-use development.

Mark made a point that every serious investor should internalize: Back then: "Is soccer going to make it?" Now: "How much is required, what do I get, and what does the return look like?"

That shift matters because it signals a maturing market. When the conversation moves from legitimacy to capital structure, stadium control, and revenue rights, the sport is no longer trying to "survive." It's competing for capital like any other asset class.

Operator implication: If your pitch still sounds like "soccer is growing," you're late. The pitch now is: What are the cash-flow drivers? What is the stadium revenue control model? What does the risk mitigation plan look like? What does the municipal partnership actually fund?

Mark's time with Lamar Hunt and the original soccer-specific stadium era is more than history it's a playbook. Three lessons from Lamar Hunt translate directly to today's club builders: visionary thinking (build what the market will become, not what it is today), no isn't final (if the system won't accommodate your ambition, create a new path), and humility with standards (leadership means being hands-on, not above the work).

That mindset is exactly what second- and third-division soccer needs as it expands toward 2026 and beyond.

Mark described stadium delivery as two parallel tracks. The financial track covers site selection and feasibility, capital stack and funding tools, lease/operating/development agreement negotiation, project management through construction, and post-build optimization. The sales track is equally critical you're selling invest-ability, economic impact, community utility, political feasibility, and a credible path to execution.

If you can't communicate "why this project wins" to investors and municipalities, you don't have a stadium plan. You have a concept.

Cortland walked through a real-world framework that serious projects use closer to a weighted matrix than a "good location" opinion. Key criteria include: stadium fit and orientation (U.S. Soccer Federation: north-south ± 15°), ingress/egress (how quickly people can arrive/leave), constructibility and remediation (hidden cost multipliers), visibility on major corridors (directly impacts sponsorship valuation), development potential, and public-private appetite.

Investor takeaway: A "cheap" site can destroy you later through remediation, approvals, or weak commercial upside. A "better" site can finance itself through smarter public tools and surrounding development.

Mark's answer was important: municipalities often support projects best through tools they're structurally built for land control and contributions, infrastructure and enabling works, tax increment mechanisms tied to incremental revenue created by the project, and redevelopment incentives in targeted districts.

He also noted the trend: projects are increasingly seeing major municipal participation because 5,000 to 10,000-seat stadiums fill a civic niche too big for high school facilities, too small for 50,000-seat venues, designed for broadcast, premium seating, and modern hospitality.

Operator takeaway: Position the stadium as a year-round civic asset, not a 17-game venue.

Mark's view: people assume modular equals cheaper. In practice, once you add HVAC, plumbing, hospitality spaces, offices, premium inventory, broadcast and back-of-house requirements the cost often converges with more traditional methods. More importantly, revenue can suffer: lower concessions per-cap, weaker premium product, less compelling sponsorship inventory.

Their alternative is a stadium kit concept: standardize components (lights, seats, video board, field systems) and customize what matters (site, concourse, buildings, integration with mixed-use).

Investor takeaway: The cheapest stadium can become the most expensive decision if it limits revenue upside.

If you're still thinking "team + stadium," you're missing what capital markets increasingly want: stadium-anchored commercial districts. Mark explained why they expanded beyond "being the stadium people." Mixed-use impacts market demand proof (pre-leasing and absorption), incremental tax generation, public finance capacity, and investor attention scale attracts different pools of capital.

When stadium + district becomes a $200M+ story, a different investor class starts paying attention.

Mark noted that COVID is now baked into how lawyers and partners think: force majeure language, operating risk scenarios, sponsor flexibility structures, and contingency planning. The core lesson: the industry survived because stakeholders adjusted rather than walked away. That real-world precedent strengthens the "soccer as investable" argument.

They haven't closed EB-5 previously, but they've been deep in it and they're actively working with foreign investors now where EB-5 may be part of the capital stack. International capital interest in U.S. soccer is real, and sophisticated projects are structuring for it.

If you're evaluating a soccer investment in the U.S., your diligence should cover: Do we control the stadium economics, or are we a tenant with capped upside? What's the site scorecard and hidden cost multipliers? What does public participation actually consist of? Does the stadium design enable revenue, or just "hold matches"? Is there a realistic mixed-use plan? What is the execution path and who has done it before?

Soccer in America isn't asking permission anymore. The opportunity now is for investors and operators who understand that a modern club is not just a team. It's a real estate and community platform with a stadium at the center.

If you want the next wave of returns, you have to build like the next wave is real.