Lynn Family Stadium

Lynn Family Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in the Butchertown neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It has hosted Louisville City FC of the USL Championship (USLC) since it opened in 2020 and Racing Louisville FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) since 2021. The venue has 11,700 permanent seats, with expansion for up to 15,304 spectators, and began construction in 2018.

History

Planning and financing

Louisville City FC was founded in 2014 as the successor to Orlando City SC, which had moved to Major League Soccer (MLS) and left an open slot in USL Pro (later the USL Championship). The team began play in 2015 at Louisville Slugger Field, a minor league baseball park, but expressed interest in building a soccer-specific stadium after reaching attendance goals. As part of the shared five-year arrangement at Slugger Field, Louisville City FC paid for minor renovations, including a retractable pitchers mound, and a rental fee of $5,000 per match. The new team drew an average attendance of over 6,000 per match in their inaugural season, second among teams in the USL, but were unable to generate revenue as a secondary tenant at Slugger Field, which incurred unexpected expenses.

In August 2015, high-level talks with Mayor Greg Fischer concerning stadium planning began as the club also explored bidding for an MLS franchise. Louisville City FC owner Wayne Estopinal and Metro Councilman Dan Johnson proposed a site at Champions Park, a former country club northeast of downtown, for a stadium that would initially seat 10,000 spectators and expand to 20,000 for an MLS team. The city government announced a stadium feasibility and financing study in January 2016, examining four sites in Louisville. The study was completed in August and recommended a 10,000-seat stadium that would cost $30–50 million depending on the mix of public and private funds, but did not name potential sites. The club appointed John Neance as chairman and operating manager in Septe