Louisville City FC had committed earlier on Thursday to spend at least $45 million on the stadium itself, and to generate $85 million of additional private investment into the project. Louisville City FC will also pay $14.5 million back to the city over 20 years from sales of land, rent from leases of land and stadium rent. Should the stadium hit certain financial markers, the city would also be able to share in the upside of that growth, up to $2 million.

The venue will be within a prospective “stadium district” where the soccer stadium, Louisville Slugger Field and the Yum! Center – home of the University of Louisville’s Men’s Basketball program – would all be situated within blocks of each other, along the same line of sight.

Louisville’s new stadium would add to a growing number of soccer-specific stadiums within the USL, which this year saw the opening of H-E-B Park by Rio Grande Valley FC, Champions Soccer Stadium by Orange County SC, the Sportsplex at Matthews by the Charlotte Independence and the Phoenix Rising Soccer Complex by Phoenix Rising FC. USL President Jake Edwards told the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Danielle Lerner last week a new stadium for LCFC would be “one of the showpiece stadiums in the USL.”

“I think Louisville's been a remarkable success for the USL in a short space of time, and have been able to build upon the success they had last season,” Edwards told Lerner. “They've had over 20 percent growth in ticket sales, they added to the front office staff with key additions like Steve Livingstone, the COO. I have to commend the hard work of [club chairman] John Neace and the ownership group and board who kept the momentum going and have been working with the mayor's office on plans for soccer stadium.”

After Thursday night’s vote, and with the club set to return to action on the field on Saturday night against the Rochester Rhinos in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the 2017 USL Cup Playoffs at Slugger Field, the club’s momentum seems certain to continue.