BOISE, Idaho — A first-rate soccer complex could be coming to the Treasure Valley. Ada County Commissioners gave Expo Idaho the okay on Wednesday to shop the idea around.
"We're going to see what the market will bear," chief operating officer Steve Rutherford said. "If there's interest out in the community for soccer to happen here, specifically professional soccer."
The complex is part of a bigger effort to turn part of the event center into two different parks — one public, one sport. The county would turn the old Les Bois Park horse racing track into the porposed soccer complex.
The racing track was decommissioned nearly a decade ago. Since then, the land has primarily been used for concerts during the Western Idaho Fair.
"It'll be exciting because soccer is super popular," Rutherford said. "Olympics just happened. [The] World Cup is happening in a couple of years."
Expo Idaho Director Bob Batista called the complex a passion project.
"If we get a good partner in this, it will be all that much great for the whole campus as an entity," he said. "It'll probably be one of the most unique and universal multipurpose event centers in the whole northwest."
Batista said the county does not want taxpayer dollars going to the sports park. So, they are trying to figure out who will foot the bill.
The county plans to put up a 30-year lease on the land for auction in a month. Ideally, contracting with someone connected with the U.S. Soccer Federation.
"They will have potentially the resources to build all this out that we're talking about and then build some more fields out so that they can eventually make a return on their investment," Batista said.
The fields would be open to other sports, including lacrosse, rugby and football. Rutherford hopes leagues of various levels would also play — professional to peewee.
Construction will likely start on phase one of the master plan, the public park, this winter or early next spring. They hope to wrap up in 2026.
The sports complex is phase two. They want to find someone to pay for it as soon as possible so everything finishes around the same time.
Once the bid goes out next month, it will stay open for a month. Rutherford said they will then go back to the county with the results.
If nobody is interested, Batista said they will go back to the drawing board.
"We're just trying to see if there's somebody interested in what we've got planned for this," he said, "and if there's not, we'll pack up and try another avenue. We really want to try and get this filled with something so that the park just doesn't sit by itself because it's a great park."