Des Moines soccer deal could get $16.4M lease grant

Des Moines City Council is weighing a late-stage financing move that would add about $16.4 million in public support to the planned downtown soccer stadium over 25 years.

The proposal would give the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation an annual grant of $656,074 after the stadium and adjacent public plaza are completed. That payment would be just $1 less than the foundation's annual lease payment, effectively reimbursing almost all of the lease cost.

The lease-offset grant is one of the final pieces in the financing plan for the $95 million project, which is expected to include a 5,500-seat stadium and a public plaza downtown.

How the grant would work

If approved, the city would not begin the grant payments until the stadium and plaza are finished. The current expected completion date is Dec. 31, 2029.

Over the full 25-year term, the grant would total about $16.4 million. The arrangement was referenced in a June 8 council document when the city approved a 50-year lease with ISDF.

The grant would not change the lease itself. Instead, it would function as a reimbursement-style subsidy layered on top of the existing lease structure, reducing the foundation's net annual cost to almost nothing.

That makes the proposal significant not only for its dollar figure, but also for what it signals about the city's role in closing the financing package.

The financing stack

The stadium project has already secured about $62 million in approved or committed public support.

That total includes up to $23.5 million in state tax rebates, $17 million from Polk County and $21.5 million in Des Moines grants.

Des Moines' already-approved city support includes a $7 million stadium grant, $1.5 million for the plaza and $13 million tied to environmental costs at the former Dico steel wheel manufacturing site.

The new lease-offset grant would sit alongside that earlier support and deepen the city's backing for the project. Taken together, the subsidies show how much of the funding stack already depends on government help.

The move also matters because it comes late in the process, after the city has already approved the lease and after most of the public financing has been assembled.

How the deal got here

The potential grant-back arrangement was referenced in a June 8 council document when the 50-year lease with ISDF was approved. That document showed the city was already considering a mechanism that could return lease payments after completion.

Axios reported on June 29 that the council will now formally consider the lease-offset grant. The report made clear that the proposal is not a new stadium concept, but a new layer of support for a project that has been moving through financing and lease approvals for some time.

The earlier Polk County decision is part of that history. In 2024, county officials considered raising their contribution from $7 million to $17 million.

That increase drew criticism from opponents of the project, but Polk County supervisor Dan Jansen said the additional county money had already been projected in the final state application and would not change the financing gap.

Political and public stakes

The project has drawn scrutiny because the stadium already carries substantial taxpayer-backed support. Adding a lease-offset grant would expand that commitment further.

Supporters of the deal may frame the grant as a way to make the financing work and ensure the stadium and plaza get built. Critics are likely to focus on the cumulative public cost and the fact that the city would effectively be reimbursing nearly all of the annual lease payments.

Those concerns are sharpened by the size of the public package already in place. A project described as a $95 million stadium with a 5,500-seat capacity and an adjacent public plaza already has about $62 million in approved or committed public support.

The new grant would add another long-term subsidy on top of that existing stack, reinforcing concerns about how much public money is tied to the downtown soccer development.

The plan is also politically sensitive because it sits at the intersection of city development strategy, sports facility spending and a broader debate over how much government should support a private-led project.

What happens next

The immediate next step is City Council action on the grant proposal.

If the council approves it, the annual payments would not start until the stadium and public plaza are complete, which is currently expected by the end of 2029.

That means the vote would not trigger immediate spending, but it would lock in the structure of a subsidy that could run for 25 years once the project is finished.

For now, the lease-offset grant appears to be one of the last financing pieces needed to close the package for the downtown soccer stadium. The council's decision will determine whether the city deepens its support further or leaves the existing financing plan intact.