Copyright Hartford Courant
Connecticut has a history of being left behind by major league sports teams, most notably the exit of the National Hockey League’s Hartford Whalers in 1997 — an injury that still stings for many local sports fans. Only one professional major league sports team, the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, currently calls the state home. And its future here has recently come into question. But the state may not have to wait long for its next shot at a major professional sports team. In recent years, a campaign for the state to enter the major league soccer market has gained momentum, with an ownership group rallying behind the soon-to-launch Connecticut United Football Club. The team would play in Major League Soccer’s NEXT Pro League, a developmental league for players looking to make it to the MLS. If all goes well, supporters believe, a full-fledged MLS team and a professional National Women’s Soccer League team could come later. There’s just one problem: The team doesn’t have a stadium to play in. Yet. First teased in 2023 and formally announced in January 2024, CT United FC plans to play in Bridgeport. A proposed new soccer stadium, part of a larger waterfront development project that would cost upwards of $1 billion, is in the works to house the team. This month, the soccer effort expanded to include a potential women’s team under the WPSL Pro, a nascent second-division professional women’s soccer league. The project is the brainchild of André Swanston, a local tech entrepreneur and millionaire with big ambitions for Connecticut’s most populated city. Soccer, he said, is a natural fit for Connecticut: When treated as a single market, the state is one of the largest areas without an MLS or NWSL team in the country. “We don’t have that iconic brand here in the state,” Swanston told The Connecticut Mirror in a recent interview. “So there is room for soccer to come in and be a big presence in a top 40 media market, which is kind of an unprecedented opportunity.” But the initiative has faced a bumpy road as players get ready to lace up their cleats and take to the field next year. Months after first announcing the team, Swanston’s Connecticut Sports Group pushed the men’s team debut back by one year, to 2026. When CT United FC finally begins play next year, it will do so without a stadium, which is still in the works and would be constructed on a former dog-racing track near Bridgeport’s waterfront. Efforts to secure $127 million in state funding this past legislative session ended without any financial commitment from lawmakers. From the beginning, Swanston has said that the stadium will largely be funded through private capital, though he has declined to say on record exactly how much the project has raised to this point or how much the total endeavor will cost. Swanston and other proponents of the stadium project maintain that the initiative is a smart investment for Connecticut, opening up new economic opportunities and generating the sort of large-scale development that can truly transform the region’s economy. They point to the growing popularity of mixed-use developments across the nation, framing the Bridgeport initiative — which would come with a hotel, environmental rehabilitation, transit hub, and hundreds of new apartments — as spurring job growth, raising local property values, and increasing local spending and quality of life. As Connecticut looks to distinguish itself from its major metropolitan neighbors in New York City and Boston, supporters say a soccer team could be a powerful source of local pride that unites the state as a regional market. Even so, the project has not been completely embraced by state leaders, with Gov. Ned Lamont offering cautious support but refraining from any sort of public funding commitment. And the stadium project has raised questions about the financial impacts of sports-centered development and how much Bridgeport will ultimately benefit. In recent years, other Connecticut-based teams have struggled with stadium projects. Almost 10 years ago, the Hartford Yard Goats minor league baseball team was forced to start play without a home stadium after construction issues, increased financial costs and delays pushed the opening of Dunkin’ Park back a full year, with the city stepping in to cover a significant shortfall in funding. The initial developer of the stadium later sued the city of Hartford after being terminated from the project. Trinity Health Stadium, home of the Hartford Athletic, a second-division soccer team that plays in the USL Championship, has also faced issues. After a $14 million renovation largely funded through taxpayer money helped cover stadium improvement costs in 2019, the team’s owners have said that they may need an additional $25 million to cover additional renovations in the future. As the season approaches, with play expected to start in March 2026, supporters of the Bridgeport project say their efforts are still alive and that they’re still expecting the stadium to happen. “If you evaluate this on the merits,” Swanston said, “it should be seen very favorably.” Soccer is growing in national popularity Soccer, like other professional sports, is gaining popularity in markets across the U.S. The current Bridgeport project would serve as the home base of a new team in the MLS NEXT Pro League, a development league aimed at supporting younger players by helping them bridge the gap from amateur into professional athlete. The League launched in 2022, billing itself as a “league of opportunity” for prospective MLS players, coaches, and staffers. MLS NEXT Pro currently has 29 teams with more in the pipeline for future seasons. A Major League Soccer team is Swanston’s ultimate goal. But starting with the developmental league would allow the state to enter on a less competitive level of the market, giving the region time to grow demand for a MLS team and build a network of possible staff and athletes. Launching an MLS NEXT Pro team also comes with expanded opportunities for youth development; The CT United FC effort for example, has already launched a youth academy aimed at building the next generation of young players free of charge. So far, the team’s initial efforts have the league’s support. “It’s a game changer, it provides access to a group of players, some of whom might not have been able to do that otherwise,” former MLS Next Pro President Charles Altchek said in 2024. “It’s going to have a very positive impact on soccer in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the region.” That effort does not end with men’s soccer. The plans also include a women’s soccer team, with the fledgling WPSL Pro — which is expected to commence play in 2027 — agreeing to back a Connecticut-based team if the stadium is completed. If both come to fruition, that could make Connecticut a crucial market in soccer’s continued U.S. development and expansion. “Connecticut is like the highest soccer viewing market in America without a men’s or women’s MLS or NWSL or affiliated team,” Swanston said. Creating local teams would allow the state to operate as a powerful viewership market, he said, while also drawing some out-of-state engagement from nearby audiences in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Currently, there are three MLSNP teams playing in the area: the New England Revolution II in Massachusetts, the New York City FC II, and the New York Red Bulls II in New Jersey, each of those teams also has a connected MLS expansion team. A Long Island-based MLSNP team, the Island F.C., is expected to begin play in 2027. A projected multibillion-dollar impact Supporters of the soccer stadium argue that the project is about more than bringing a popular sport to Connecticut. Instead, they point to the broader effects of the investment, framing the stadium as a necessary catalyst for a larger series of development projects — in a city where that kind of investment could be transformational. That includes a $1 billion mixed-use complex that would encompass the stadium, a hotel, public park space, a riverwalk and roughly 1,000 new housing units. The University of Connecticut’s Center for Economic Analysis estimated that, depending on the size of the stadium built, the project would generate somewhere between $2 billion and $3.4 billion in economic impact along with hundreds of jobs. “Part of its appeal is that it’s of a sufficient scale to really be impactful,” Fred Carstensen, director of the CCEA, said of the Bridgeport development. Carstensen added that the project has the potential to be one of the “most transformative projects in a generation,” allowing the state to address multiple needs: significant economic development, job creation and increased housing stock. The diversity of the development effort, he said, would keep the project from facing the typical limitations of publicly funded stadium initiatives, which have been found to have little economic impact on the cities they are built in. “If they built the soccer stadium by itself, it would be really problematic, because it wouldn’t be integrated into the community,” Carstensen said. State lawmakers said the waterfront development could help jumpstart Bridgeport’s economy, helping the region further build out a burgeoning reputation as a destination for events. “Bridgeport has kind of made their mark as the entertainment capital,” said state Rep. Chris Rosario, D-Bridgeport, a prominent supporter of the stadium effort. “What better addition than MLS NEXT Pro soccer as well as a now announced women’s team?” The state has been reluctant to put up money for the project Still, the effort has faced headwinds on its path to funding. Swanston did not state an exact number when asked how much money the stadium effort needs, instead emphasizing that the project has “significant private capital” investment that would cover the majority of the cost. But earlier this year, a delegation of Bridgeport lawmakers brought a proposal to the state legislature, requesting $127 million in public investment for the project. The request faced tough prospects before wary state leaders. Gov. Ned Lamont has made it clear he prefers tapping private funders to pay for the stadium, declining to commit public money to the effort. “Its a pretty big ask,” he told the Connecticut Post earlier this year. So far, the project has received $16 million from the state for remediating contaminated land on the build site. That money would also cover some infrastructure improvements to support access to the nearby waterfront. State leaders emphasized that these initiatives are meant to support whatever is constructed on the site, be that the stadium or otherwise. Lawmakers ultimately passed on providing more money for now, instead approving legislation that would allow for part of the stadium costs to be covered through tax increment financing, a tool that allows for development costs to be covered by future local tax revenue. Legislators also approved an economic impact study into the project to see if public investment would be worth it, giving the Department of Economic and Community Development a deadline of Oct. 1, 2025 to complete its analysis. But that study won’t materialize for months beyond that initial deadline. Last month, DECD requested an extension for completing the study, and a spokesman confirmed to the Connecticut Mirror that the agency did not have the resources to complete things by the deadline. DECD has since posted a request for proposals for a third-party agency to complete the study; the application will remain open until December. The impact analysis, which isn’t a prerequisite for state funding, is currently expected to be completed by July 2026, months after CT United FC begins its first season. While the legislative effort has yet to result in any cash, supporters of the stadium remain optimistic. “At this point, I think an impact study doesn’t really matter,” said state Rep. Antonio Felipe, D-Bridgeport. “It wouldn’t affect whether or not the project is funded. It wouldn’t affect whether or not people look at the project differently.” Rather than a necessary component for funding, he views the study as “a way for us to keep the ball in the air.” “I’m not jumping for joy, but it’s a good track to be on, as opposed to having no funding and no plan,” said Rosario, who emphasized that the delegation supporting the effort is in regular communication with the state and DECD. “We currently don’t have the funding yet, but we do have a plan.” A new sports opportunity Swanston remains hopeful that the stadium will be built. For now, Connecticut United is focused on gearing up for its first season, which will be played at venues across the state next year. And the entrepreneur has felt bolstered by the state’s recent focus on women’s sports, noting that in recent months, state officials’ fight to keep the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun — an effort supported by Lamont, who has offered to commit state dollars to keep the team — shows that the state is willing to financially back efforts to retain professional sports teams. He hopes the pattern might hold for his prospective WPSL Pro team. On a recent Sunday in East Hartford, a glimpse of what Swanston hopes to create in Connecticut came into focus. More than 20,000 soccer fans gathered last weekend to watch the US Women’s National Team play against Portugal, part of a series of international friendly matches. Hours before the game, fans milled about outside the Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, taking photos, playing games, eating food and buying merch. Tailgaters fired up grills and pulled out chairs as they prepared in the nearby parking lots. Other spectators hovered near the gates, waiting to enter. Staffers for CT United FC were out to promote the team, standing under branded tents as they invited people to play cornhole games, sit for face painting and sign up for the mailing list. As he watched a round of cornhole, Ryan McGuinness, CT United FC’s recently announced VP of Marketing and Fan Engagement, said that the activities are just the beginning of a long process of getting people around Connecticut acquainted with the team ahead of their debut. A Connecticut native with experience working for the MLS and ESPN, McGuinness said he’s looking forward to the work. “The fact that we have the opportunity to build a new professional soccer team on both the men’s and women’s side is something I’m really excited to be a part of,” he said. For supporters of the team, the effort is an easy one to get behind. But in the months and years to come, they’ll need to make their case to the rest of the state. How fans will react to the team is still unclear. When it comes to the numbers behind the effort, Swanston is more certain. “On the merits of the actual math, the jobs, the housing, the economic impact and aligning with what the priorities have been stated for this administration, it aligns perfectly,” Swanston said of the stadium construction effort. “We’re really excited about that.” P.R. Lockhart is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).
