USL Expansion to Rhode Island is Part of $400 Million Proposal

Could a Rhode Island-based team soon be joining some level of United Soccer League competition? That certainly seems to be Brett Johnson's plan.

If a story in The Valley Breeze newspaper is to be believed, Johnson and his compatriots at Fortuitous Partners have not only proposed bringing a USL franchise to Pawtucket, RI, but are apparently planning for the team's soccer-specific stadium to be part of a $400 million development in the city.

An artist's rendering that accompanies said story shows a soccer stadium occupying the site of the former Tidewater Gas Works facility on the west bank of the Seekonk River in downtown Pawtucket. What appears to be mixed-use development on the river's east bank is shown stretching from the city's Festival Pier facility to a parcel at 45 Division Street. The artwork also depicts additional new development at a site on Main Street that is currently home to a retail store and tire & auto center owned and operated by the Apex Companies.

Johnson - who, in addition to being a principal in Fortuitous Partners and Co-Chairman of the USL Championship's Phoenix Rising, is also a graduate of Providence, RI's Brown University - is known to have submitted a proposal to the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation and City of Pawtucket seeking to redevelop the site of McCoy Stadium as a recreational park featuring multipurpose athletic fields, while simultaneously bringing a USL club to a new soccer-specific stadium in downtown Pawtucket.

McCoy Stadium has played host to affiliated minor league baseball's Pawtucket Red Sox since 1970, first in the Double A Eastern League, and - for the past 47 years - as the Triple A farm team for the parent Boston Red Sox. With the minor league franchise set to relocate to a new, state-of-the-art ballpark in Worcester, MA in time for the 2021 International League season, public officials in the Ocean State have been searching for investors interested in backing development at both the McCoy Stadium site and in nearby downtown Pawtucket.

Pawtucket, which neighbors Rhode Island's state capital of Providence, is part of the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area, the 38th largest in the country, with a 2018 estimated population of 1,621,337 residents. As such, a Pawtucket-based USL team would be operating in a larger metro area than 15 of the current USL Championship clubs and 8 of the current USL One sides.

A decision on which of six proposals - including Johnson's - will ultimately be accepted has yet to be made, but officials have indicated it could come soon.

http://www.valleybreeze.com/2019-11...uts-400-million-downtown-project#.XccLLC3MxmD

 

It appears that next Monday will see State of Rhode Island and City of Pawtucket officials announce that professional soccer will play a role in the redevelopment of McCoy Stadium and the municipality's downtown.

According to a meeting notice, the McCoy Stadium & Pawtucket Downtown RFP Review Committee is scheduled to convene at 12:00 PM on Monday in order to "consider" the six proposals for redevelopment that were submitted in April of this year. An invitation that's been circulating in Rhode Island claims that a "special economic development announcement" is set to be made at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center in Pawtucket just 30 minutes after said meeting commences.

Of the six bids received in response to the RFP, two call for soccer to play a role in the revitalization of McCoy Stadium and Pawtucket's downtown. One, from AJAX Advisors, seeks to "bring professional sports to Pawtucket with independent professional soccer in a new stadium in Downtown Pawtucket and the conversion of McCoy into light industrial use." The other, from Fortuitous Partners principal and Phoenix Rising FC co-chairman Brett Johnson, would bring a United Soccer League franchise to a riverfront stadium in downtown Pawtucket, construct ancillary development surrounding said facility, and repurpose the McCoy Stadium site as a recreational park featuring six multipurpose fields that can be used for soccer, lacrosse, or football.

In September, an entity dubbed Rhode Island Riptide FC hired state house lobbyists Peter Baptista, Daniel Connors, and Michael Sweeney to advocate on its behalf. Shortly thereafter, Rhode Island Commerce Corporation spokesman Matt Sheaff confirmed that Rhode Island Riptide FC was linked to one of the six groups that had responded to the RFP in April, but wouldn't say which one. Earlier this month, The Boston Globe reported that RiptideFC.com was redirecting to Phoenix Rising FC's website.

Both in late October and earlier this month, The Valley Breeze newspaper reported that it appeared one of the soccer proposals would ultimately be selected in Pawtucket, going so far as to run a piece - including an artist's rendering - on the $400 million plan put forth by Fortuitous Partners.

So, it certainly seems likely that pro soccer is headed to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, with the team most likely being a USL franchise. Additionally, it would appear that the name Rhode Island Riptide FC is, at the very least, under consideration for said club.

 

Brett Johnson of Fortuitous Partners - and co-chairman of Phoenix Rising FC - is bringing a USL Championship franchise to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in time for the 2022 season.

As part of the $400 million Tidewater Landing mixed-use development, said team would play its home matches at a 7,500-seat stadium on the west bank of the Seekonk River in downtown Pawtucket. Adjacent to the stadium would be a riverwalk park, restaurant and retail outlets, and parking. Across the river, reachable by a new cable-stayed pedestrian bridge and situated north of the City of Pawtucket's Festival Pier, would be a mix of just over 200 units of housing, further restaurant and retail development, and another riverwalk park. Finally, at the so-called Apex site on Main Street, development would include an indoor sports center, a 200-room hotel, and commercial office space.

The plan calls for Fortuitous Partners to invest between $310 million and $330 million of the project's total price tag, with the public sector's contribution targeted to be between $70 million and $90 million in infrastructure improvements (construction of the pedestrian bridge, streetscaping improvements, and development of the riverwalk parks).

https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/1068623

http://thetidewaterlanding.com/about-tidewater-landing/

 

Rhode Island FC has been unveiled as the identity of the Pawtucket-based USL Championship side that’s set to debut in time for the 2024 season.

rhodeislandfc.com