Jozy Altidore talks about plans to make OKC a national soccer hub
Altidore is partnering with Christian Kanady, Founder and CEO of Echo, to cultivate Oklahoma City into a thriving soccer ecosystem.
- The United Football League announced it will launch a new professional football team in Oklahoma City.
- The team is scheduled to begin play in the spring of 2028.
- Games will be held in a new downtown multipurpose stadium that has not yet been constructed.
- The new stadium is also intended to host professional soccer, high school football, and other events.
Professional football is coming to Oklahoma City.
The United Football League announced on Thursday morning that it will launch a new team to play in Oklahoma City’s yet-to-be-constructed downtown multipurpose stadium. The team will open play with the 2028 spring season.
“We’re excited to be part of Oklahoma and bring back a pro spring football league to a city and state that loves football,” UFL co-owner Mike Repole told The Oklahoman.
“We’re excited about this market and excited about expanding.”
Repole, a renowned entrepreneur who joined the UFL less than a year ago, is so pumped about the league being in OKC that he wishes the UFL wasn’t announcing a kickoff that’s still two years away.
“If Oklahoma City had the stadium that is going to be ready in 2028, the team would’ve been there this year,” he said. “That’s how confident I am in the city. That’s how confident I am in the state. That’s how much I know you guys love your football.
“To me, this is the perfect market for a UFL spring football team.”
Even though the groundbreaking for the multipurpose stadium is still a couple of months away, momentum is already building around what’s to come there. Professional soccer will be the main tenant, but when the stadium was proposed as part of MAPS 4, city leaders hoped it would open doors to other opportunities. Perhaps it could host high school football championships or college lacrosse tournaments or international soccer friendlies.
There were possibilities that never existed before in Oklahoma City.
“And here we are,” Oklahoma City mayor David Holt told The Oklahoman. “We haven’t even broken ground yet, and it’s already paying dividends.”
Negotiations to bring the UFL to OKC were led by Echo Investment Capital, which has a majority interest in the yet-to-be-named pro soccer franchise. The ownership group operates as OKC For Soccer, led by president Court Jeske.
“We want this to be the busiest outdoor stadium in the country,” Jeske told The Oklahoman, “and to achieve that, it won’t just be about soccer and spring football. We’re going to have a partnership with Oklahoma City Public Schools. We’re going to work to secure international events in lacrosse, in rugby, across the NCAA.
“If it fits in a rectangular field, we’re going to go secure it for Oklahoma City.”
Getting the UFL on board is significant, the culmination of a process that began almost two years ago. Soon after Jeske took the job with OKC For Soccer, he heard from a friend who worked at the UFL.
The league wanted to look into OKC.
UFL brass came to town, met with leaders and even discussed designs for the stadium. They offered expertise about how to build certain facets of the stadium so that it would be prepared to host not only the UFL but also high school and college football games.
“We used their input as experts in the football space to ensure that things like locker rooms were right-sized, coaching booths were at the right position, camera angles for Fox and ABC would be in the right locations,” Jeske said.
About a year ago, communication with the UFL died down as the league went through some changes, including Repole coming on board. But when he learned more about the stadium being built in Oklahoma City, talks about a team got serious.
Repole, a well-known entrepreneur who co-founded vitaminwater and smartwater among other billion-dollar ventures, said the new stadium’s expected capacity of 10,000 makes OKC even more appealing to the UFL.
“Other than college football and (NFL) football, how many other sports can really sell out 60,000 to 100,000 fans at a game?” Repole said. “It doesn’t really happen.”
Sellouts in professional basketball and hockey, for example, are between 15,000 and 20,000, and they make for raucous environments. But put those crowds in a massive football stadium, and they’d be dwarfed.
But put a crowd of that size in a smaller stadium for a football game?
“With the energy and the excitement of almost every play, whether it’s a 5-yard loss or it’s a touchdown or it’s an interception, it’s loud,” Repole said. “When you put it in a stadium that fits 15,000, there isn’t a bad seat in the house.
“If you asked me if I had a choice between 10,000 and 50,000, it’s a no brainer.”
Details about the team, including name and colors, will be announced at a later time, but fans can already get on the waiting list for tickets. Reserving a place can be done at OKCForSoccer.com.
“It’s an exciting day for Oklahoma City,” Jeske said. “This is kind of a surprise and delight moment that a lot of people probably didn’t expect.
“We are excited that pro football becomes another staple of our sports portfolio.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
