Denver NWSL unveils 14,500-seat stadium, entertainment district at Santa Fe Yards

DENVER — Since the announcement that Denver was getting a NWSL team became official in January, the first question people had was ‘Where will they play?’

On Tuesday, the organization announced the answer to a boisterous, gleeful and packed gymnasium of students at the Girls Athletic Leadership School in Baker. Denver NWSL will build a 14,500-seat purpose-built stadium and entertainment district at Santa Fe Yards, adjacent to the Broadway Station light rail stop at Santa Fe Drive and I-25. If all goes to plan, the stadium could open in spring of 2028. It will be the first purpose-built stadium for women’s sports in the state. The stadium will be designed by Populous.

City of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, an avid soccer fan and key supporter throughout the bid process, said that it was a day area residents would not forget.

“This truly is a day for Denver history,” the mayor said.

When Johnston unveiled the renderings, students screamed in excitement. Looking at the plans, it’s hard not to get excited.

NWSL Chief Operating Officer Sarah Jones Simmer called it “the largest private investment in the history of women’s professional sports.” Cohen confirmed the stadium will be privately funded by the ownership group, but Johnston used “public-private partnership” as the land beneath the stadium will be city-owned.

The stadium will sit at the northwest corner of a larger 43-acre plot of land at Santa Fe Yards, which was once the former site of a rubber factory. The City of Denver will acquire the 14.3-parcel with the ownership group, as well as build out an entertainment district in the Baker neighborhood, similar to how LoDo was built surrounding Coors Field, the blocks surrounding Empower Field at Mile High and the eventual plans for Ball Arena. The Denver Post and Denverite reported property records for the parcels of land are worth close to $24 million. Other pieces of the stadium puzzle is incorporating public transportation with RTD light rail stop, the South Platte River Trail as well as develop Vanderbilt Park East into the site plans, which currently is a dirt lot. On top of the infrastructure, the parcels of land are already in a TIF district — Tax Increment Financing — which are meant to promote improvements in certain neighborhoods of the city.

“It really will be placemaking and community building spot that we want to do,” Cohen said.”

‘A stadium in a park’

For controlling owner and governor Rob Cohen, finding the right piece of land — in Denver proper, the urban core — was the focus, but the other amenities, such as access to public transportation, walkability and easy access to the suburb soccer clubs — was also key.

“We scoured the city searching for a potential site that would make sense to have this team” Cohen told the audience. “It didn’t take us long until we started to hone in on Santa Fe Yards, and the reason for that was, it checked all the boxes for us. … The neighborhood, we felt would create a great vibe on gameday, but would also be something we could activate 365 days a year.

“We wanted something that could be about community building and placemaking, we really felt that this concept of a stadium in a park is something very different than what you usually see, which is a stadium surrounded by concrete and asphalt.”

It is evidently clear what this new era of stadium building is about, and what it is not, as Cohen seemed to allude to in Commerce City with what the Rapids have failed to do with Victory Crossing.

Two distinct land plans for #ColoradoSoccer pro teams: 1) DSGP (2007): 917-acre footprint w/23 fields, a sea of parking lots & zero public transportation in Commerce City. MLS 1.5 era. 2) Today: 14-acre lot, 3.5 acre park in Denver proper, light rail & trail adjacent. Denver NWSL took notes. #NWSL

[image or embed]— Brendan Ploen (@brendanploen.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 10:59 AM

New NWSL clubs set the standard

Jones Simmer called the stadium transformative for the league. She knows that the NWSL is in the midst of a brand-new era, spurred on by what the Kansas City Current ownership did last year by launching CPKC Stadium in downtown Kansas City. Now, it’s Denver’s turn.

“Our players deserve nothing less,” she said. “Because of partnerships and investments like these, we’re building the future where women’s sports are not just included, but they’re celebrated and prioritized.”

Elsewhere around the league, Chicago is looking for its future stadium after it has been playing at an MLS-1.5-era suburban stadium, which is inconvenient to the vast majority of its fanbase. Boston, the other expansion team set to kick off in 2026, is going through its own struggles with renovating White Stadium in the city proper, as the group is in the midst of a lawsuit about renovating that.

While there is still a long way to go between formal land sales, re-zoning from City Council to build the stadium and entertainment district, construction and eventually kickoff. This deal appears on the outset fairly straightforward and, frankly, a minor miracle in city planning and bureaucracy.

“This is a place where you see all people of all backgrounds together in one united cause, that rarely happens in our society, and, at a time where I’d argue we need it more than ever,” said Minority Owner Jason Wright.

More to come

Cohen said the group is finalizing the deals for the interim stadium while the permanent ground is being built, and added that a training facility location will be announced “in the next two weeks”. He added that building out front office and staff is also a priority.

The club is set to choose from six names in the coming weeks, and given that season ticket deposits have already passed 5,280 (The Post added it’s closer to 10,000), the stadium announcement was the icing on the cake for what looks to be the NWSL’s strongest expansion team and brand launch in years.