New City Island stadium proposed, but no money raised

(Harrisburg) —The owner of Harrisburg’s professional soccer team is outlining plans for a new stadium on City Island. There’s just one problem: the City Islanders have raised zero dollars towards the $14 million project.

“We’ve gotta raise the funds, and we are looking at public and private dollars, matching dollars,” says owner Eric Pettis.

“We’re in a lot of communications. We have met with state Representatives, state Senators, folks at the state Treasury Department, the County Commissioners, the Mayor, and again, everybody’s working for the good of this cause.”

Pettis says he’s pursuing three different options: corporations, government grants, and selling naming rights.

To keep to an opening date of 2016, construction would have to start in less than a year.

“We’re not at the finish line yet. We gotta a lot of hard work to do. But what we do know is that this makes sense, and so now we gotta get the funding together, and we’ve got a lot of support on that. But we’ve got a lot of area to cover before we get to the end result.”

If built, the stadium would seat about 4,500 people, plus feature new locker rooms, a new concession area and entrance plaza.

The field be made up of artificial turf that would allow for more use by college and high school teams, and provide better conditions for players.

A feasibility study paid for by Dauphin County estimates a new stadium would result in nearly four million dollars in spending every year.