{"id":4969,"date":"2025-10-15T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/4969\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:00:10","slug":"port-st-lucie-awarded-united-soccer-league-franchise-regional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/4969\/","title":{"rendered":"Port St. Lucie awarded United Soccer League franchise | Regional"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here for updates on this story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (WPBF<\/a>) — Professional soccer is coming to the Treasure Coast.<\/p>\n

The United Soccer League announced Monday that the city of Port St. Lucie was awarded a United Soccer League (USL) franchise. The franchise will launch men\u2019s and women\u2019s soccer teams with the goal of playing matches at a new soccer stadium.<\/p>\n

The city is in partnership with the Treasure Coast Sports Commission and the Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County.<\/p>\n

A 6,000-seat stadium will be located at the corner of Walton Road and U.S. 1.<\/p>\n

The name of the team is Port St. Lucie Sports Club.<\/p>\n

The club plans to build a soccer stadium within the Walton & One, a mixed-use development.<\/p>\n

Officials say this will enhance sports tourism and become a hub – sports and entertainment district for the city.<\/p>\n

“The opportunity to have a stadium right here on US 1 will transform the east side of the city so it’s not just a soccer stadium … concert venue, special events, maybe cultural events will play, outdoor theater, things of that nature,” said Port St. Lucie Parks and Recreation Director Brad Kean.<\/p>\n

According to the United Soccer League, the Port St. Lucie SC men\u2019s team plans to compete by 2027 in the USL League One, while establishing a women\u2019s soccer team remains the goal.<\/p>\n

USL League One is the third tier of professional soccer in the United States, behind top-tier Major League Soccer (MLS) and second-tier USL Championship.<\/p>\n

“Port St. Lucie is proud to become home to a United Soccer League franchise, an investment in our city\u2019s future, our economy, and our identity as a community that dreams big and delivers on those dreams,\u201d Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin said in a statement. \u201cThis partnership will serve as a catalyst for growth and opportunity across our city, St. Lucie County, and the entire Treasure Coast region. It\u2019s more than sports; it\u2019s about bringing people together, energizing our city, and building our future.”<\/p>\n

Iain Sanderson, the president of Mako Soccer Club in Port St. Lucie, said his club has players from ages 3 to 18.<\/p>\n

Port St. Lucie Sports Club could be a pathway for local youth soccer players to go professional.<\/p>\n

“Our aim for a Mako point of view is to see our players move on into their program and we want to be putting Mako players on the field out here as professional players,” Sanderson said.<\/p>\n

The franchise is also exploring opportunities to build a training facility and sports complex in Port St. Lucie.<\/p>\n

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Click here for updates on this story \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida (WPBF) — Professional soccer is coming to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5498,171,173,172,5500,5499],"class_list":["post-4969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-cnn","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-regional","tag-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}