Now that a final real estate sale has been completed, work is expected to begin soon on the new Iron District professional soccer stadium development between Michigan and Clybourn Streets (and I-794) and 6th and 10th Streets, in Westown.
An ambitious timeline plans to have Milwaukee's still-unnamed USL Championship team kicking off in its new digs next March.
The development – of which a residential component has already been completed on 10th Street – is expected to include an 8,000-seat soccer stadium for the new USL Championship team, a hotel and an events venue.
The plan, called the Iron District, was announced in May 2022, with construction expected to begin that year for completion in 2024 and a 2025 USL kickoff.
Despite the delay, it is projected that the stadium will still be ready for the team to occupy at the start of the 2026 USL season next year.
The delay was fueled by financing issues and construction costs. The team was initially expected to begin league play in 2025.
Construction on the $220 million Iron District can now move forward because, as the first Journal Sentinel reported this week, the seven-acre stadium site at 8th and Michigan has been sold for $9.3 million to MDC Iron District LLC.
Work is expected to begin by summer.
The deal was completed thanks to a grant from American Rescue Plan Act funds, which the state made to MDC, an affiliate of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, because the money was required to be received by a nonprofit.
The Iron District is being developed by Bear Development, in partnership with Milwaukee Pro Soccer, the new USL Championship club owner.
Marquette University’s men's and women's soccer and lacrosse teams are expected to use the stadium as their home field.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
