To transform an area many have failed to develop for most of the millennium, the Denver women’s soccer team has to complete several difficult plays before it reaches its goal of creating a permanent stadium by 2028.

And quickly.

“It’s an incredibly condensed timeline,” said Robert Cohen, CEO of Denver’s IMA Financial Group and the head of the ownership group behind the city’s National Women’s Soccer League team.

At a community town hall led by 10 registered neighborhood organizations, Cohen and Councilmember Flor Alvidrez detailed the complicated process to bring a 10,000- to 12,000-seat stadium to the old Gates rubber factory site. It’s an environmentally-contaminated site that has been sitting empty since its industrial activities ceased operations in 2001 and is next to one of the city’s busiest transit hubs.

Future home of Denver women's soccer stadium was once a booming rubber factory

The team will have to navigate going through rezoning and permit approvals, infrastructure upgrades and stadium costs. There’s also disagreements over whether the city or the team should be responsible for funding a pedestrian bridge connecting Broadway station directly to the new stadium.

A women’s soccer team could generate up to $2.2 billion in economic impact to the city over 30 years, according to a city analysis.

The report also details how the stadium could bring benefits that are difficult to calculate financially such as building community pride and being an inspiration for generations of girls.

The Denver City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement in May for $70 million, a majority of which will be used for buying the land for the stadium to be built on.

The rest will be used to fund infrastructure around the stadium, such as creating a new public park, fast-tracking plans to expand Santa Fe Drive to five lanes and investing in sidewalks, street crossings and access to the South Platte River.

The $70 million agreement – which got some pushback from councilmembers concerned the stadium funding was coming at a time of economic hardship for the city – still needs to be finalized by the City Council later in November.

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As part of the commitment that Denver made with the National Women’s Soccer League to be selected, the stadium has to be built by March 2028.

“We need to have that approval in November so that we can finalize the things we need to do and start construction in March ‘26, because it will take 24 months,” Cohen said. “So that starts in November.”

A stadium built by women, for women

While the city would own the land, the team promises to fully finance the construction costs of the stadium.

It was important for the team to have its own stadium as many women’s sports teams rent venues from the men’s league, Cohen said. Revenues then don’t fully go back into the women’s team.

Without a stadium, he said, it’ll be harder to prove women’s sports are profitable.

The site has long been undeveloped because of environmental damage left behind by the rubber factory, but the plot where the stadium would be is cleared for construction after years of cleanup by former owners.

“Part of the site is not safe, which is not near the stadium,” Alvidrez said.

She explained there’s a contaminated water plume underground that could take “hundreds of years to clean.”

Cohen added that most of the environmental issues are in the “monitoring” phase.

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The stadium for the team, which will announce its official name and colors next week, is still in the design process.

The team released renderings of the stadium in March but those were “schematic drawings,” Cohen explained, and architects are working on creating an official blueprint and masterplan.

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The images of the stadium are a general vision of what it would look like, he said, but there’s still questions over what design features the stadium will have and how it would be powered.

“This is a facility we want to be designed by women, built by women, for women,” Cohen said.

That doesn’t mean men will not work on the project, he said, but rather women are occupying more leadership roles throughout the process, not just to boost opportunities for them but to also help rethink how stadiums should be different for women’s sports.

The team hired Populous and Civitas, with Cohen saying those firms were chosen because they could offer a number of lead architects who are women. They also plan to hire contracting firms that will have female project managers.

The team is currently going through research from focus groups and studies to determine how to make the stadium experience more catered toward women.

Some early gleanings include pod-like locker rooms, as women may be less comfortable changing clothing in front of each other compared to men, or integrating family amenities such as playgrounds or stroller parking more centrally into the design. They’re also considering other issues such as how to make women feel more safe at night after attending games.

“​​These are things you don’t typically see in every stadium, or if you see it, it’s off in a section cordoned off into the very back bowels of what’s going on,” Cohen said.

When asked by an audience member at the town hall about whether the stadium would seek LEED certification, the real estate industry’s standard for sustainable developments, Cohen responded he wasn’t sure if it was economically feasible yet but they are looking into it.

“Probably our wish list is bigger than what we can afford,” he said.

Making community promises

Along with stadium planning, the team is working on establishing a Community Benefits Agreement with neighborhood organizations in preparation for rezoning.

A CBA is a legally-binding contract requiring developers to fulfill certain promises ranging from delivering a number of housing units to creating community assets.

Kroenke Sports & Entertainment established a CBA with a local nonprofit group for its Ball Arena neighborhood development, which pushed Kroenke to build more affordable housing than the city requires and offer support to descendants of the displaced Aurarian community.

Leaders behind the community benefits agreement couldn’t share much about what is being discussed with the team amidst legal negotiations.

The team representing the community chose five priority areas, said Lukas Hagen of the Neighborhood Development Collaborative. Those categories are business and labor, history and culture, transportation, parks and social impact.

Overall, they’re working with Denver FC to find ways to support local businesses, improve transportation and green space in the area, commemorate the area’s long history and “make sure that the stadium benefits people from all walks of life, and particularly the surrounding neighborhoods.”

Who will pay for a north bridge to Broadway Station?

There’s still a lot of uncertainty over what will happen to the area around it.

The stadium takes up 9 acres of the 41-acre Gates Rubber Factory property. There are several private parcels around the stadium site, RTD’s Broadway Station and a pedestrian bridge to nowhere.

The city has $20 million for infrastructure upgrades and the area was designated an urban renewal zone that is funded by tax-increment financing, or borrowing against future tax gains spurred by development, but it’s not clear if it’ll cover all upgrades.

“We don’t know how much money or debt we can take out on that future income at this time,” Councilmember Alvidrez added.

One project in contention is a new pedestrian bridge.

“There is a conundrum at the moment on who’s going to pay for those things,”  she said.

There’s already a pedestrian bridge on the south side of the rubber factory built in advance of developments that have still not risen from the ground, earning it the moniker a “bridge to nowhere.”

But once the bridge finally has a stadium to connect to, community members noted it would require at least half a mile of walking for guests to go between the stadium and RTD’s Broadway Station. Some want another bridge to be built on the north side mentioned in earlier masterplans for the site.

Cohen said he believes the south bridge should be enough for game days, though he added they’re still in the midst of traffic studies.

Still, he added, they won’t be able to fund a second one.

“I’ve been honest and said that we’re putting all our money into the stadium and the development that we’re doing and there’s no funds from the club for that bridge,” Cohen said.