‘Dead on arrival,’ Modesto City Council member says about pro soccer stadium
Modesto City Councilmember Nick Bavaro said a downtown professional soccer stadium is “dead on arrival” based on a survey presented at Tuesday’s budget workshop meeting.
The survey, conducted earlier this year, gauged public support for how money from an increased transient occupancy tax should be spent. A TOT is a special tax paid only by hotel and motel short-term rental guests.
Among the many things surveyed residents wanted the money to go toward, building a pro soccer stadium ranked last. Bavaro said the survey’s results, which he called “the sentiment of the people,” were enough for him to believe the city should stop its negotiations with the United Soccer League.
“That sends a strong message telling us what the people in our city want and don’t want,” he said. “For me, as far as I’m concerned, the pro soccer stadium is dead on arrival. Plus, I’m not sure if the math was going to work.”
Earlier this month, the city extended its exclusive negotiation period with USL to June 10, after missing two deadlines to ink a deal for a downtown stadium. The city has been in exclusive negotiations with USL since September 2024.
Since then, it’s held numerous hours-long public meetings and workshops to gather data, public input, explore financial options and even select a stadium location.
For this new negotiating period, the city wanted Kosmont Companies, a consulting firm, to “assess the feasibility of the proposed stadium” and “assist in advancing negotiations” with USL, according to the city’s latest letter of intent.
“The city is still carefully evaluating the financial feasibility to determine if this project is right for our community,” said city spokesperson Sonya Severo in an email to The Modesto Bee on Wednesday. “It is our due diligence to make sure we have an objective and thorough review of the costs, benefits and risks for our council to make an informed decision; understanding this decision affects our community for generations to come.”
Bavaro’s comments are an about-face from his statements a year ago. During a public workshop in March 2025, Bavaro promised USL representatives in attendance that a soccer stadium project would happen, no matter where it was located.
“This is a council that works well together and is focused on getting projects like this done,” he said. “The message you can take back to your office is that this council will get this done.”
Now, Bavaro is saying that a stadium, at any location, is not financially viable. An increased TOT rate would be necessary for the city to finance it, he said. And he believes the other issues residents listed as higher priorities in the survey, such as fixing potholes and cleaning up the city, already have been budgeted.
Because of this, it’s unnecessary to increase the TOT for anything other than to finance a stadium, he said, and given the survey results, the city might as well just abandon the idea.
Other opinions among council members
Councilmember David Wright disagreed with his colleague, saying, “I don’t know why Councilmember Bavaro is stating that.”
Wright said he believes adding the soccer stadium as one of the options in the survey was wrong. The city should do another survey in “about six months to a year,” he said, that asks residents more directly if they’re interested in a professional soccer stadium.
“It’s too early to tell. There’s a lot of other pieces that have to be put together. … (Bavaro) may be right, but I still think it’s too early to tell,” said Wright, who added that he does not agree that the city should end its negotiations with USL.
Councilmember Chris Ricci said that without private funding, and considering the survey results, the stadium is looking less likely. One thing he, Wright and Bavaro agree upon is that the general fund should not be used to pay for it.
Increasing the TOT would be one of the few ways to fund the stadium, Ricci said, but he doesn’t support doing that. Ricci said he believes a stadium has to be done “in concert with development” and those deals are just not lining up.
“Its looking a heck of a lot less feasible than it did two days ago.”
The downtown stadium project was estimated to cost about $125 million and seat 10,000 people. The men’s soccer team planned to play there would be a level below the USL’s top tier, which includes Sacramento Republic FC.
This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 5:58 PM.
