Kitsap Pumas Season Museum Pages

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2009

2009: South Kitsap Wolves win first soccer title for the county!

The history of bringing pro soccer to Kitsap

Exclusive coverage: Pumas Announced as club name

Blog Archive videos, photos and articles

Robin Waite (left, owner), Lucita Flores-Alvarenga (ticket winner) and club executive Ben Pecora.

Club launches name the team contest     

Community warms to Kitsap pro soccer plans

Read our exclusive report from the public meeting

Kitsap Sun: Sounders looking at Bremerton

King 5 News: Sounders to Memorial Stadium / Bremerton?

Poulsbo pro soccer stadium plan scrapped, Bremerton next?

(Kitsap Sun)

UPDATE July 14, 2008: Poulsbo stadium is out

Robin Waite of Inovest has been a co-owner of the Seattle Sounders for many years. In 2005 he looked into bringing the Sounders to Bremerton to play at the Fairgrounds.

In 2008 Waite has decided to fund a 6,000-seat soccer stadium in Poulsbo. The logistics of the stadium are still being worked out. Plans are almost done. Here is an aerial view of the stadium land.

The Seattle Sounders are due to fold or relocate after the 2008 United Soccer Leagues Division One season so that the new Seattle Major League Soccer (MLS) club can begin playing at Qwest Field.

Kitsap County is west across Puget Sound from Seattle.

New Site Eyed for Proposed 6,000-Seat Soccer Stadium

By Chuck Stark (Contact)
Thursday, April 10, 2008

Land in Poulsbo that was originally earmarked for two multipurpose community fields could become the site of the 6,000-seat soccer stadium that Robin Waite wants to build.

Waite, a Tracyton developer and a former part-owner of the minor league Seattle Sounders soccer team, had planned to build the stadium on property he owns off Urdahl Road, next to The Zone Sportsplex in Poulsbo.

Mayor Kathryn Quade confirmed that Waite and the city have had preliminary discussions about swapping land. Waite would end up with a parcel near College Marketplace, next to the North Kitsap Olympic College campus; the city would get the Urdahl Road plot.

Poulsbo city planners had raised questions about sewer connections and the possible impacts of more than 6,000 people trekking back and forth to games at a stadium at Urdahl Road.

Waite said building a stadium at his site also turned out to be "cost-prohibitive."

He thought he could build a grass-field stadium for about $3.2 million, but "the numbers came in about three times larger than what we anticipated," he said. "It makes it difficult because you have to have a huge flat area. ... At the other parcel, we can do it on our budget."

The city had required construction of two multiuse fields when it approved the Olhava commercial development near the intersection of highways 3 and 305.

Waite is hopeful he will be able to work out a joint lease, or a straight swap, with the city.

"They originally suggested this parcel to us," Waite said. "The hang-up on it was, I couldn't come up with anything to replace the two fields it would take."

Since those early discussions, Waite, owner of Inovest Properties, bought the land on Urdahl Road. Waite said the city could conceivably build three fields on his site.

If the city's College Marketplace land is worth more than Waite's Urdahl road land, Quade said, additional negotiations would be necessary.

Waite hopes to use the stadium as home for a professional soccer team in USL Division I, one step down from Major League Soccer. He originally tried to make a deal with Kitsap County to renovate Thunderbird Stadium at the Fairgrounds, but that proposal fell through.

Waite is still talking with USL officials about relocating the Sounders, the defending USL Division I champs, to this side of the Puget Sound. If that happen, he'll hold a name-the-team contest because Seattle's Major League Soccer team, which begins play in 2009, has adopted the name Seattle Sounders FC.

"Having the Sounders over here would be great for us," he said. "It's a well-known name, but it would have been a real mistake to not name the (MLS) team the Sounders."

Waite has decided to install an artificial surface instead of real grass. Artificial turf is easier to maintain, can be used for more events and can be installed more quickly.

"If we decide to do a concert, you don't have to worry about the grass being torn up," he said. "It just makes more sense."

Parking remains an issue, but Waite would like to work out a trade off with the college, which has parking for 400 next to the College Marketplace acreage.

"In exchange for parking, we'd let them play some games there," he said. "It would really enhance their program."

Waite envisions hosting high school and club-team state tournaments in addition to having a USL club as its main tenant.

Plan to Lure Seattle Sounders, Build NK Soccer Stadium Taking Shape

Kitsap Sun, February 28,2008

by Chuck Stark

Robin Waite's plowing ahead with his plans to build a soccer-only stadium in Poulsbo.

The owner of Inovest Properties remains optimistic that the team now known as the Seattle Sounders, the defending United Soccer League Division I champions, will become Kitsap's own professional team. And he hopes it can happen as early as 2009.

Waite provided an update on his venture Wednesday night at the Kitsap County Bremerton Athletic Roundtable meeting.

The 67-year-old Waite, who moved to Tracyton from Bellevue two years ago, plans to finance the project himself. He estimated the stadium will cost between $2.5 and $3 million. He said yearly operation costs for a USL Division I soccer team, including player salaries and travel, are about $1 million.

He hopes to begin work on the stadium, to be constructed on a 12-acre parcel of land on Urdahl Road, no later than August. And there's still a lot of hurdles he must clear with the City of Poulsbo before that happens. The property currently has no sewage or power. And parking figures to be a major issue for a stadium with a planned 6,000-seat capacity.

Waite owns the land, which sits across from The Zone Sportsplex, an indoor sports facility. But once the stadium is configured, he estimates that he will only have room for about 250 parking spots on-site.

Once he gets a rendition of the stadium — he's hired Tacoma-based Bruce Dees and Associates to build it — Waite said he hopes to meet with nearby businesses and Olympic College to see if he can use some of their parking on game nights.

If the stadium is not ready for the 2009 season, Waite said he would look into the possibility of holding games at another location, possibly North Kitsap High School.

Waite has been one of seven owners of the Sounders, which has been highly successful on the field, but less so in box-office terms. The majority owner of the Sounders, Adrian Hanauer, will operate the club this season out of the Starfire Complex in Tukwila before taking on full-time responsibility as one of the owners of Seattle's Major Soccer League franchise, which opens for business in 2009 at Qwest Field.

"We're basically out," Waite said of the other six partners.

Waite said none of the other owners were interested in keeping the Sounders beyond 2008.

"If the MLS is going to Seattle, it makes no sense to have a lesser team somewhere within striking distance of Qwest Field," Waite said.

So when he asked about transferring the club across the water to Poulsbo, nobody objected.

"There were a few raised eyebrows," Waite said. "If they feel I want to do it, it's my poison."

Seattle's MLS team still hasn't been named. It's possible they could keep the name Sounders. If not, Waite said he would likely name his team the Sounders.

Waite submitted his application to relocate the franchise to the USL league office in Tampa, Fla., about a week and a half ago, he said.

Gerald Barnhart, director of public relations for the USL, confirmed that the league has received Waite's request.

"The league will examine it essentially the way you would a new franchise," Barnhart said. "You're looking at a different market, a different stadium situation than what the Sounders were dealing with."

Barnhard said the league will have informal discussions and go through an evaluation process before making any decision.

Some, naturally, think Waite's dream is a pipe dream. Professional soccer in Kitsap County?

"People are cynical," said Ben Pecora, director of the Kitsap Sports Council. "They won't believe it until they see it, and I think that's probably the case here. I just hope some are proactive and can get in on the ground floor."

Waite hopes to sell 2,000 season tickets, secure three major corporate sponsors and sell the naming rights to the stadium.

Pecora has been working behind the scenes with Waite to make it happen.

"Luckily, I get to see the whole inside of the whole machine," he said. "I have very little doubt it's going to happen. And I'm a fan, too. I'm psyched. Imagine how great it would be to take a 10-minute drive and go to a game. No ferries. Every time it came on TV, who's going to benefit? Kitsap County and Poulsbo. It'll be a boom for the city of Poulsbo."Waite hopes to draw fans from South Jefferson County, Belfair and the Gig Harbor area. He thinks the population base of around 300,000 is enough to support a professional team. He said he would also bid for state high school and community college championships, would attempt to lure high-level soccer exhibitions and stage a couple concerts each year.

Waite's told the BAR audience he wants fans to have participatory role in the stadium, as well as what they'd be willing to pay for tickets.

"I'd like to hear what they like about going to soccer games, what they don't like and what we can do to improve the product," he said.

"He wants to hear what you want in a facility," Pecora said. "That's phenomenal. Here's a guy writing his own check and he's asking people to have input. That's fantastic."

Those interested can submit their thoughts and ideas by e-mail to Waite at inovest@qwest.net.