The recently closed Notre Dame College could soon find a new purpose. Cleveland Soccer Group, which is working to bring professional women’s soccer to Northeast Ohio, wants to use the campus as its training facility.
Cleveland Soccer Group's Cofounder and CEO, Michael Murphy, said bringing soccer to the Cleveland area has been a two-year journey.
“We've been on this journey now to bring professional soccer to Cleveland for over two years, and part of it is obviously where are you going to play, the stadium, the facility, and we have plans for that have been very public now and we're excited moving those along,” Murphy said.
Murphy said the plan is for the team’s professional training facility to sit on the college’s campus.
“So it's really an opportunity for example, what the Browns are to Berea or the Cavs currently are to Independence,” Murphy said. “You know, soccer, professional soccer can be to a community in Northeast Ohio as well. We've looked at dozens of sites for professional training facilities, and we really like Notre Dame College. We think it's got some great attributes.”
He also said the urge to use Notre Dame’s former campus hits close to home for him. His parents are from South Euclid, and he grew up in University Heights. Murphy said the area that the college was located in has had a leadership role for women over the past 100 years.
“We know Notre Dame very well,” Murphy said. “And [it has] just been such a historic institution for so long, over 100 years. Originally a college for women. Regina High School then came along in a heyday had over 1,000 girls going to school there, my mom was one of them.”
The group is also planning to build a new stadium in Cleveland that would primarily be used to host women's sports. Murphy said the stadium would be located South of the Gateway District.
“It's currently owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation,” Murphy said. “We're talking a six-minute walk from home plate or an eight-minute walk from midcourt kind of, to midfield. And that's where we hope to build the stadium for professional soccer in Cleveland.”
Murphy said the endeavor to bring a women’s professional soccer team to Northeast Ohio has been met with a plethora of support from the public.
This past October, Cleveland Soccer Group launched its Back the Bid campaign to garner support and raise money. Those interested can purchase merchandise and pledge tickets here.
Murphy said there are currently over 14,000 ticket pledges.
“The recent response has been incredible,” Murphy said. “You know, we went through this process two years ago, and the league loves Cleveland as a market. You know, it's the last top 20 market in the country without professional soccer. We punch well above our weight in professional sports here. We're a pro sports town.”
When its efforts started two years ago, Murphy said the group had all of the elements except for a stadium location. He now believes with a stadium location, along with many other factors, Cleveland stands a good chance.
On June 7, Cleveland Pro Soccer put its bid into the National Women’s Soccer League; Murphy said the league is still on track to pick the 16th team in 2024.
“We don't really have professional women's sports in the state of Ohio, especially in Cleveland,” Murphy said. “We had hoped to be an Ohio team and really could draw from neighboring Western New York, Pennsylvania, Indianapolis, where there's not women's professional soccer either. And so we think it'd be a great transformational project for Northeast Ohio for many, many years.”
