photo credit: Sporting KC II/flickr

Professional soccer may be coming to Santa Rosa, and while it'll be sometime until the first kick off, Sonoma County's largest city is looking at having it's own United Soccer League teams.

The city and league held a public forum on June 4th to give residents and those interested by pro soccer in Sonoma County a chance to weigh in.

No one's kicked a ball yet, or even found a place to play, but Santa Rosa has signed in ink its commitment to bringing professional soccer to the city of 175,000.

Steven Short is senior VP for expansion at USL.

Short this week joined Santa Rosa elected leaders and city officials at the Epicenter indoor soccer complex.

"I think we're very positive and optimistic about [expansion]" Short said. "I think you look at the progress of the city leadership, you look at the soccer nature of the community, high soccer knowledge, high supporter knowledge. We're certainly excited about it, and I think we're [going to] continue to work with the city to make it happen." 

They were there for an open forum about the prospects for expanding men's and women's professional soccer teams to the city.

Santa Rosa city council member Jeff Okrepkie said he sees fertile ground for a team in the heart of the county.

"So when we were approached by USL, they had already done that grunt work of can a team survive here, is a team viable here," Okrepkie said. "We have a very vibrant soccer community here. Not just in youth soccer, but also fandom from English League, Bundesliga, MLS, and so on. So they know that, that it can survive." 

Windsor resident Andrea Garfia, whose daughter plays competitive youth soccer, said she's most excited about the impact on local soccer.

"I think one of the added benefits of having a higher level professional stadium and sports teams is the youth programming that often comes along with it," Garfia said.

Santa Rosa and the USL have so far signed a letter of intent; agreeing to exclusive negotiations over the next 12-18 months to bring pro teams to the city.

A future men's team would play in the second or third tier of US pro soccer, while a women's team would play in either the first or third tier.

The city and league say they'll explore locations for a new stadium that could be tied into an a "larger entertainment district"; financed by a possible public-private partnership.

Other big question marks still up in the air: ownership, and, Okrepkie said, a name.

"Probably not the Crushers, probably not the Stompers," Okrepkie said with a laugh. "They have their own brand experts that do all of that analysis. You know, we joke the color of claret is...one of the oldest wines, we're wine region. I'm also a West Ham supporter whose colors are claret and blue. So I have a preference. But all of that, you know, we'll leave it up to the experts to develop their brand and what they think is best."