Jonathan Lintner

@JonathanLintner

A local architect and minority investor in the Orlando City Soccer Club said Thursday that he's anticipating a June 4 announcement to address "the future of soccer in Louisville."

Wayne Estopinal, president of TEG Architects, has long sought to relocate Orlando's United Soccer Leagues Professional Division team to Louisville now that Orlando is moving up through Major League Soccer Expansion. Starting in 2015, Orlando City will need a USL Pro affiliate, and with the part-owner Estopinal in town, Louisville was all along favored to land the championship-winning franchise.

An announcement date coincides with the $581,000 included in Mayor Greg Fischer's 2015 budget released Thursday for renovations to Louisville Slugger Field should the club relocate.

The money would support field changeovers from soccer to baseball, as the USL Pro season overlaps with the Triple-A Louisville Bats, and includes creation of a new locker room for the team. Opponents would use the visiting baseball locker room, according to the plan.

Steve Rowland, chief financial officer for Fischer, didn't comment on negotiations to bring a minor league soccer franchise to Louisville.

"Our role in that is to make improvements to allow soccer to be played there," Rowland said.

USL has already passed a vote approving Louisville should Orlando City decide upon it. The league's pro division is the nation's third-tier soccer organization, designated as Division III behind MLS (Division I) and the North American Soccer League (Division II).

Estopinal noted last month that Louisville would not just get a USL team, but one of the best. Orlando City has won two championships in the last three seasons, attracting 20,886 fans to its title game match last fall.

TEG Architects designed the University of Louisville's new soccer stadium that's under construction on Floyd Street, and Estopinal has since mocked up plans for how the sport could work in Slugger Field. The architect drew the pitch from home plate down the first base line, with locker rooms in center field and most of the stadium's seats within easy view of the action.

Switching between soccer and baseball configurations, which would involve flattening the pitcher's mound and covering base paths, would take about a day.

Estopinal started a major push to lure the USL Pro club in January when he invited a pair of his fellow Orlando City owners, president Phil Rawlins and chairman John Bonner, to Louisville for a day of meeting local officials. That night, Rawlins said USL is "very supportive of Louisville as a marketplace ... so we're delighted to have that pre-approved. Now it's down to the details — dotting the Is and crossing the Ts — and hopefully we can make this work in the next few months."

Rawlins added: "Great demographic, great area — I think the city's got a great potential for soccer. I think pro soccer would really make a great splash in Louisville."

Estopinal's efforts have been backed all along by a local soccer support group called The Coopers, who have assembled a list of more than 1,600 would-be season ticket holders.

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199; follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner. Reporter Sebastian Kitchen contributed to this story.