RICHMOND, Va. – The Richmond Kickers have called City Stadium their home since 1995. Under a new proposed agreement, the historic USL club aims to secure a lease for the venue for the next 40 years, but also make $20 million-worth of upgrades that would improve numerous areas within the facility.

“This is a great opportunity for the Kickers to make City Stadium our permanent home and to improve the stadium for the city, the neighborhood, the Red Army and the entire soccer community,” Vernon Inge, a member of the Kickers Board of Directors, told the RichmondBizSense.com’s Michael Schwartz. “We have big plans and we want everyone to be a part of it.”

The Kickers have increased the club’s attendance consistently over recent seasons, setting a club record of 4,000 fans per game this past year. The organization is now looking to build around the existing structure of the stadium that will create a home environment that will allow the club to keep pace with the growth of the USL.

Under the proposal, the Kickers would pay a nominal fee to the city for the lease to the venue, and would take on the responsibility for all upkeep, utilities and taxes on the facility. The first phase of the redevelopment would see upgrades to landscaping, fencing, seating, the field and irrigation and the venue’s parking lot that would be completed by 2020.

Additional investment that would improve the concourse, signage, stadium lighting and team facilities would follow in the next decade, with the project also including additional seating, mini-fields and futsal courts and other measures in the years to follow. The club would also be able to pursue additional sponsorships, including a potential stadium-naming rights deal, that would help offset the costs associated with the upgrades.

The upgrades would not only benefit the Kickers, but also the local community as the facility would remain available for the city and Richmond Public Schools for events and parking throughout the year.

“The benefit is, we receive new income, we can continue to use it and we’d receive some significant improvements to make it a much better facility,” the City’s Economic Development Director Lee Downey told Schwartz.

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With the Kickers’ continued success on and off the field, the opportunity to take control of the facility would be a major step forward in securing a bright future for the club.  

“The Kickers and the city have had a longstanding, positive relationship,” Inge told Schwartz. “And the Kickers have been playing at City Stadium since 1995, so we do really consider it our home.”