Mesa Joins the Stadium-Village Trend
The calendar year 2026 is picking up right where 2025 ended. Another city is going to create an entertainment district with the hope of building a stadium-village in an attempt to get a Major League Soccer franchise or a National Women’s Soccer League team or both. The latest municipality is Mesa, Arizona which is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Mesa is the spring training home of the Major League Baseball Chicago Cubs franchise and John Fisher’s Athletics franchise. Mesa also hosts an Arizona Fall League development team. The Mesa City Council has approved the formation of the Palo District at a location where an abandoned mall is located. The district will feature restaurants, retail, lodging, offices, residences and “a multi-use stadium that could include soccer.” It will be an economic catalyst bringing jobs to the area. That is the standard line about these types of proposals.
“The Phoenix metropolitan area is a great place for it, and we’re able and willing to court them,” Mayor Mark Freeman said. “MLS, women’s soccer and there could be other sports venues as well.” It took the Mesa city council about 12 minutes to approve the creation of the district. No Mesa residents attended the meeting. That was the easy part. Now comes the real work. Finding money to build the stadium-village, finding an owner and then finding a league that wants to put a soccer team in Mesa. There is no indication that Major League Soccer wants to expand in the near future although the league has been keeping eye on developments in Indianapolis where elected officials want to build a stadium-village in the city. The NWSL probably would have an interest in placing a team in the Phoenix-area if a stadium becomes available. Politicians are falling in love with soccer-stadium villages despite the fact there is no evidence it is an economic generator.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
