{"id":592622,"date":"2026-04-09T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592622\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T14:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:15:07","slug":"ufl-to-expand-to-oklahoma-city-signs-lease-in-new-soccer-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592622\/","title":{"rendered":"UFL to expand to Oklahoma City, signs lease in new soccer stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">The United Football League has inked a contract to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/15\/okc-soccer-stadium-design-will-put-supporters-feet-on-the-playing-surface\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/01\/15\/okc-soccer-stadium-design-will-put-supporters-feet-on-the-playing-surface\/\">MAPS 4 Multipurpose Stadium<\/a> now under development in Oklahoma City, and says it will launch an expansion team in that market for the 2028 season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">It\u2019s the first expansion announced by the eight-team UFL since the USFL-XFL merger in 2024, and another one is contemplated under co-owner Mike Repole\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepoleStable\/status\/2018836271280624081\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RepoleStable\/status\/2018836271280624081\">pledge of a 10-team league in 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">UFL officials\u2019 talks with Oklahoma City officials go back at least a year, said UFL President &amp; CEO Russ Brandon. \u201cThey\u2019re really building out an incredible sports and entertainment landscape, so to be a part of that and to have an opportunity to talk about the facility and putting football elements into it is very exciting,\u201d Brandon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">The 10,000-seat venue, to be situated south of the city\u2019s Bricktown entertainment district, is set to open in Jan. 2028. It will be owned by the city, and operated by Echo Investment, the majority owner of OKC for Soccer. OKC for Soccer hopes to relaunch the city\u2019s dormant men\u2019s pro soccer club in the USL Championship in 2028. Populous designed the building.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">Brandon credited Court Jeske, sports partner at Echo and head of OKC for Soccer, for keeping the UFL conversation going while the stadium development project came together, including getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/10\/15\/okc-passes-27b-bond-with-sports-venue-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/10\/15\/okc-passes-27b-bond-with-sports-venue-funding\/\">funding approved by voters<\/a> in November. \u201cIt fits right into our venue ecosystem,\u201d said Brandon, referring to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/10\/07\/ufl-announces-new-teams-in-louisville-orlando-and-columbus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/10\/07\/ufl-announces-new-teams-in-louisville-orlando-and-columbus\/\">UFL\u2019s relocation into smaller, soccer-specific venues<\/a> for six of the eight teams going into this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-leagues-and-governing-bodies \">The team\u2019s name and overall branding will be announced later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Football League has inked a contract to use the MAPS 4 Multipurpose Stadium now under development&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,527,561,82,183763],"class_list":["post-592622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-football-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592622","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=592622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}