Railyards soccer stadium gets groundbreaking date despite tax district issue
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- Sacramento Republic FC will break ground Aug. 18 on a 12,000-seat stadium for 2027 debut.
- Wilton Rancheria marks anniversary of Rancheria Act with stadium groundbreaking.
- Privately funded $175M venue aims to host soccer, concerts and civic events.
Recent opposition to the expansion of a financing district in the downtown Railyards isn’t slowing Sacramento Republic FC from beginning construction on its new multi-use soccer stadium.
Republic FC will officially break ground next Monday, Aug. 18, with plans to open the 12,000-seat venue in time for the 2027 soccer season, club president and general manager Todd Dunivant said. The plan comes despite the city pausing a deal to help fund infrastructure around the project.
The groundbreaking will be celebrated with a ceremony surrounding a notable date in the history of Wilton Rancheria. The Native American tribe became the first majority owner of a men’s professional sports team in North America when it purchased a controlling stake of the club last November.
Monday will mark the 67th anniversary of the California Rancheria Act, which terminated federal services to 41 rancherias throughout the state. Wilton Rancheria had its federal recognition restored in 2009.
“So to be able to come back on Aug. 18 for groundbreaking, to sort of reclaim that land is really special and really the biggest story here,” Dunivant said.
The sale to Wilton Rancheria meant the end of Republic FC’s search for financial backing for a new stadium.
Dunivant said official renderings and plans will be unveiled in the coming weeks and months. Fans will be able to place deposits on tickets to games at the new stadium on the same day as groundbreaking.
Complicated financing battle won’t deter construction, team says
The stadium will cost $175 million and be privately funded by the team’s new ownership group, while the expanded infrastructure financing district would have reimbursed infrastructure costs to developers through future property tax revenues.
But the expansion of the financing district to cover 244 acres in the Railyards was stalled through a vote last month. Labor union Unite Here Local 49, which has called for the project to include more affordable housing than the 500 of the 6,000 new units planned, presented a vote of residents who currently live in the Railyards to the committee overseeing the financing agreement.
Through a complicated law, the expansion of the financing district was stalled a year. The financing district was established in 2019 and will and cover the funding for the infrastructure on the lot where the stadium will be built east of Seventh Street in the Railyards. Republic FC doesn’t view the pause in the financing district’s expansion as an impediment to the project.
“We’re going to move forward,” Dunivant said. “We know that this is going to be great for the Railyards, for the current residents, to have more development down there, to. have neighbors, to fill the hole that has been there for decades and decades now.
“This is something that is such a win for Sacramento, for everyone. It is the most politically popular thing that I think has ever come through Sacramento.”
Sacramento City Council voted unanimously June 10 to approve the expanded financing and the construction agreements. That came after unanimously approving the initial term sheet for the project following Republic FC’s ownership change.
What non-soccer events could come to the stadium?
The plan for the new venue involves more than just soccer games.
The new stadium is expected to be an outdoor entertainment hub unique to downtown Sacramento capable of hosting concerts and other sporting events. Dunivant said Republic FC is currently building out adivision with that aim.
“There’s going to be a lot of great opportunities for concerts, smaller events, corporate gatherings, political gatherings, all kinds of different things we can utilize the stadium for and truly make it a destination that is used beyond game days,” Dunivant said.
Visit Sacramento, which helps promote tourism and commercial events to the area, said conversations about events can gain traction now that shovels are going into the ground.
“We don’t have much of an outdoor venue in Sacramento proper,” said Mike Testa, president and CEO of Visit Sacramento. “There’s a variety of amateur sporting events we can do. There’s a variety of concert events that we can be a part of. As I look at the landscape of Sacramento and where the opportunities are, those opportunities increase as we add more venues to the market.
“Many of us are thrilled about soccer in that facility. But I think there is opportunity to bring things here that we just haven’t had the right venue for, and this provides that new venue.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 10:45 AM.
