In 2020, Union Omaha began playing in USL League One and has been a model soccer club from day one. The club has been extremely competitive on the field, finishing the season in the finals two out of three years, including winning the league title in 2021. And let’s not forget that amazing US Open Cup run last year, ending in the quarterfinals, an impressive feat for a division three club. All that quick success has paid off with the fans of Nebraska, who have made Union Omaha one of the top clubs in attendance every year of its existence.

And while nearly 4,000 fans show up every home match, they get to watch this gem of a team play on a converted baseball field. Ask any fan of a lower league team in the United States, the first complaint is American football lines, but the second and WAY worse complaint is a patchy cover over the shape of a baseball diamond. It’s not a good look. And since its founding, Union Omaha has played its matches in Warner Park, a minor league baseball stadium Union shares with the Omaha Storm Chasers, the Triple-A Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. But if Nebraska Legislative Bill 621 passes, a new soccer-specific facility could be in the cards for the Nebraska-based USL League One club.

Warner Park: a baseball field pretending to be a soccer pitch.

According to Cindy Gonzalez’s article in the Nebraska Examiner, the bill “asks the state to contribute twice the amount raised privately.” That amount could be as much as $50 million. The rest of the funding for the project would be up to club to raise. Club president Martie Cordaro was at the state house presenting Union Omaha’s plan to the legislative committee, in hopes of getting steam behind the bill.

Cordaro’s pitch focused on several aspects of how the money would be spent. An expanded youth academy is one part of his plan, which he claimed would stem the loss of talented local players to other parts of the country. The other is the prospect of creating a women’s professional side, certainly an exciting idea for many midwest soccer fans. The project, according to the club president’s numbers, would yield “an anticipated 195 new jobs and economic impact of about $17 million a year.”

It’s very early days for the bill, but clearly Cordaro and Union Omaha are hoping for the state legislature to deliver its part of the needed funding. It remains to be seen if that will actually happen.

- Dan Vaughn