{"id":485348,"date":"2026-02-19T13:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485348\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T13:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:12:09","slug":"jozy-altidore-joins-nbas-westbrook-in-1b-okc-soccer-team-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/485348\/","title":{"rendered":"Jozy Altidore Joins NBA\u2019s Westbrook in $1B OKC Soccer Team Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFormer U.S. Soccer<\/a> star Jozy Altidore<\/a> is investing in an Oklahoma City United Soccer League (USL<\/a>) team set to re-launch in 2028 with a new stadium as part of a $1 billion entertainment district.<\/p>\n

\n\tAltidore and his longtime business partner Alex Lee join nine-time NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook on the cap table headed by financial firm Echo and its founding partner and CEO Christian Kanady, who says he is a \u201cfifth generation Okie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe alignment with Christian and Echo was really important for me, looking at what they\u2019re trying to do in a city that means so much to them,\u201d Altidore said in a video call. \u201cAs a player, you see what works and what doesn\u2019t in development and youth development, and this gives us a chance to build something from the very start.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOklahoma City had a USL team that played in a pre-World War II stadium and went on hiatus in 2022. The re-launch will include a venue with more than 10,000 seats that meets MLS standards, with $121 million of public money directed towards the stadium. The city is also nearly fully funding the new $1 billion arena for the NBA\u2019s Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> set to open in 2028.<\/p>\n

\n\tEcho is planning for the stadium to be the centerpiece of a $1 billion mixed-use development, which will include retail and hospitality experiences, a music campus and public green spaces. It will be two blocks from the Thunder\u2019s arena. Westbrook, who played 11 seasons for the Thunder and won the 2017 NBA MVP there, invested in the OKC soccer project in 2024. Other investors include the Chickasaw Nation Tribe and Nick Gross, son of bond king Bill Gross.<\/p>\n

\n\tOklahoma City is one of the fastest growing major cities in the U.S., and it now ranks as the 20th largest in the country by population.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a city with a population on the rise, diverse, well run, well capitalized, and then lastly, a sports city,\u201d Kanady said. \u201cWhat we are building with Jozy [answers the question of] how do you take college football and the NBA, and add a third love language of sport, all kind of clustered in a downtown area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAltidore, 36, announced his retirement from soccer in 2023 following an 18-year pro career that spanned MLS, LaLiga, Premier League, S\u00fcper Lig, Liga MX and Eredivisie. His 42 career goals for the U.S. men\u2019s national soccer team are the third most all time, behind Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan, both at 57.<\/p>\n

\n\tAltidore and Kanady first connected in early 2025 when Altidore was looking at soccer opportunities in the U.S. and abroad. \u201cI wanted to be really delicate with the project that I chose to do stateside, being my background as an American soccer player,\u201d Altidore said. \u201cI wanted to do something that had a sense of a differentiator in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOff the field, Altidore has been an active sports investor. In 2024, he became an equity partner<\/a> in the NFL\u2019s Buffalo Bills,\u00a0alongside former NBA stars Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter. Other investments include TGL\/TMRW Sports,\u00a0SailGP and the NWSL\u2019s Bay FC.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn early 2024, Altidore invested in Sogility, which operates youth soccer training facilities and utilizes a proprietary tech training platform. Lee is the company\u2019s CEO, and Altidore serves as its chief strategy officer. Echo will invest in Sogility as part of his alliance with the investment firm, and Sogility\u2019s training methodology will be integrated into the Oklahoma City teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former U.S. Soccer star Jozy Altidore is investing in an Oklahoma City United Soccer League (USL) team set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,84909,3555,561,82,14299],"class_list":{"0":"post-485348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-jozy-altidore","11":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-usl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}