Planning for a new Energy FC stadium has shifted to a new location, as the proposed budget has increased and the team is now looking at a site in Lower Bricktown that will allow for a larger budget featuring new TIF money.
Energy FC is on hiatus: the pitch at the team’s former home, Taft Stadium, has been deemed too small and not meeting USL Championship specs. The 8,000-seat MAPS 4 Multipurpose Stadium–called that because the stadium will be partly funded via the voter-approved MAPS 4 funding plan, based on a temporary penny sales tax used to fund a variety of city projects–will be located at the old Producers Cooperative Oil Mill site, south of Oklahoma City Boulevard and east of the BNSF railway viaduct, in the Lower Bricktown area of Oklahoma City east of the Oklahoma City Convention Center. Team owners Bob Funk Jr. and Tim McLaughlin have a contract to buy the nine-acre site and plan on donating 7.2 acres to the city for the stadium. The remaining land is envisioned as a mixed-use development including residential, commercial, retail and dining options in a walkable district.
The new Energy FC stadium began with a $41 million budget in MAPS funds, but the TIF review committee tomorrow will consider a proposal to rise the budget to $71 million with the addition of $30 million in TIF funds. That raise is pitched by the team and the city to covered increased costs for the project, which was initially budgeted in 2019. Still to come: review from the Oklahoma City Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust on Jan. 5 and City Council on Jan. 16.
The stadium design includes a United States Soccer Federation (USSF)-approved pitch, seating for approximately 8,000 guests, locker rooms and suites. The venue, planned for a 2027 opening, will be the city’s only stadium with a USSF-approved pitch to accommodate professional men’s and women’s soccer.
2019 rendering of new stadium courtesy Energy FC.
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