Daniel Karell

The Courier-Journal

Louisville City FC has identified a site for a future soccer-specific stadium.

The team has a preferred site in mind in Louisville, and the board will get to work with Metro Council to finalize acquisition of the undisclosed property, said John Neace, chairman of the Louisville City board of directors.

“We’re 100 percent down the line in terms of knowing the site that we want and having the ground optioned up, but we don’t own any of it yet," Neace said. "We are working pretty diligently for, let’s just say, a backup plan in case that doesn’t work out."

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While the location of the potential stadium site is unknown to the public, Neace did offer some hints on what his ideal stadium site would look like.

Last month, Neace said in a press release that the club was looking for a site in "urban Louisville," and on Friday he expanded on that, saying it likely will be in a "10 square mile radius" around downtown Louisville. In addition, Neace said stadium visibility from the interstate was one of the top team's top factors when searching for a site.

"We can’t tuck the stadium away in some corner," Neace said. "We’ve got to be out there where you can see us from the highway, so people who are out on Saturday night looking for something to do may say ‘Let’s go to a soccer game, we’ve never been,’ and what spurs them to think about it is the stadium. So visibility for the stadium itself is pretty key."

Asked Friday whether or not Mayor Greg Fischer was aware the club had a final site in mind, a spokeswoman for the mayor said, "Details about location and financing for a soccer stadium have not been finalized. We can't comment further."

On Wednesday, Fischer's office said it disapproved of a proposal to build an $80 million aquarium on a 50-acre site at Champions Park on River Road due to the park lying in a flood plain. Champions Park has been rumored to be a possible soccer stadium site and it is less than a two-mile drive from Louisville City's training site at Thurman Hutchins Park.

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In separate interviews, Mike Mountjoy and Barrett Nichols, both members of Louisville City's board of directors, hinted that an announcement from the team on a stadium site could be coming in the next few weeks.

“The stadium is going be in Louisville and it’s going to be where the millennials would like the stadium to be," Mountjoy said. "We think the site that we’re looking at is really a terrific site."