Sporting KC II to Des Moines? What the MLS NEXT Pro proposal includes, and what it leaves open
On Oct. 6 at the Des Moines Heritage Center, Hometown Soccer Holdings, Sporting Kansas City and MLS NEXT Pro laid out a plan to move Sporting KC II to Des Moines, rebrand it as an Iowa club and build a stadium on Principal Financial Group surface lots north of the company's downtown headquarters.
It is a pitch, not a deal. In the latest posted records, LLR found no agenda item, formal application or vote on it before the Des Moines City Council, the Polk County Board of Supervisors or the state's economic development board. The landowner hasn't committed either. "Hometown Soccer Holdings has inquired about the property Principal currently has listed for sale. No agreement or commitment has been made," Principal said in a statement to the Business Record.
City Hall had seen the idea before. The Business Record reported Sept. 25, about four weeks after the city ended talks with Krause Group over development around the long-delayed USL stadium at the former Dico site, that the city had received a presentation from MLS and Hometown Soccer Holdings (HSH) to bring an MLS NEXT Pro team to Des Moines.
What's on the table
HSH is a joint venture of MLS and funds managed by the private-equity firm KKR, announced in April as MLS NEXT Pro's "commercial engine." Sports Business Journal reported in August that HSH was working with MLS clubs to relocate their NEXT Pro teams to new markets.
The Business Record reported a stadium of approximately 6,000 seats costing $55 million to $65 million. HSH president Chris Klein told the paper the cost hasn't been finalized. WHO 13 reported 5,500 to 6,500 seats and $60 million to $65 million.
HSH chief development officer Chris Oxley said the stadium would be municipally owned or overseen by a stadium authority, not the league, according to the Business Record. He didn't say how much public money the group would seek. HSH also floated youth fields at the Dico site.
What HSH wants next is political. "I think it's important that we see an indication from the city council at some point here soon that this is an alternative that everybody's willing to explore," Oxley told WHO 13.
The project already in place
The Iowa Soccer Development Foundation (ISDF), the nonprofit behind the Dico stadium, holds a ground lease the council approved June 8. The adopted resolution gives it an initial 25-year term and two 25-year renewal options, up to 75 years. City documents also show $7 million, $13 million (environmental) and $1.5 million (plaza) grants, plus about $656,000 a year for 25 years after completion to offset rent, conditioned on continued soccer use. City documents require at least 5,500 seats and completion by Dec. 31, 2029.
What broke down was the development around it. On Aug. 26 the city ended negotiations with Krause Group. It cited a $12 million budget gap in fiscal 2028, and $5 million more the next year, which it attributed to new state property-tax limits. The ISDF said its project was "not being abandoned." Board president Jeff Lorenzen said, "In order for this to come together, there needs to be an agreement on the development of the ground around the stadium," the Business Record reported.
State money is also at stake. In 2024 the Iowa Economic Development Authority approved up to $23.5 million in reinvestment-district benefits for a district plan that lists the Dico stadium as its anchor project. When the Krause talks ended Aug. 26, city economic development administrator Carrie Kruse said the effect on that funding remained to be seen: "We'll have to work with our partners to understand what options we may have for moving forward, and we plan to have those conversations," according to the Business Record. Whether any of that money could follow a team to another site hasn't been addressed publicly.
A council work session on "the current state of Pro Iowa Soccer" with the ISDF, the USL and Krause Group was set for Sept. 24, then cancelled, according to the city's notice. The notice gave no reason. That day, Kyle Krause, Lorenzen and USL CEO Paul McDonough pitched invited community leaders, the Business Record reported.
LLR found no public statement from the ISDF or Krause Group responding to the MLS proposal. According to the Business Record, Oxley said HSH had talked with members of the foundation but not its board. WHO 13 reported that HSH had not yet been in communication with the foundation.
The mayor and the foundation
Mayor Connie Boesen has been on the ISDF board since February 2025, when the foundation named her and Deputy City Manager Matt Anderson among the "City of Des Moines and Polk County representatives" on its new board. When the council approved the Dico lease on June 8 and the grant amendment on June 29, she declared a conflict of interest each time and abstained, city records show. Earlier, on Dec. 8, 2025, she had voted with the 7-0 majority to approve the original $7 million ISDF grant, part of that night's consent agenda, according to the signed roll call.
The council has not voted on anything related to the MLS proposal. In a statement quoted by KCCI, Boesen said the city is "carefully evaluating the details of this proposal from MLS Next Pro" before making a final decision.
What it means for Kansas City
Sporting KC II plays at Victory Field at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Missouri, according to the club's 2026 game notes. KC Parks says the complex, in Swope Park, is managed by Sporting KC. The team started there in 2016 as the Swope Park Rangers of the USL and became a founding MLS NEXT Pro club in 2022.
The team is also a step on Sporting's academy pathway. Club notes for its Sept. 13 home finale list Ty Haas as an SKC Academy amateur with 21 appearances and identify other regulars as academy products.
Sporting president and CEO Jake Reid framed a Des Moines team differently. "This will be an Iowa team through and through. So this is not a Kansas City pipeline. We want those players to someday play for KC. But they will start their pro career here," he told WHO 13.
LLR found no public statement from Sporting on what a move would mean in Kansas City, including whether Victory Field would keep a professional team or how local academy players would reach a second team a few hours north. No relocation date has been announced.
What it means for Iowa's lower leagues
The Des Moines Menace of USL League Two have been majority-owned since 1998 by Krause. He and his wife, Sharon, have committed $23 million to the Dico stadium project, which a 2025 city ordinance lists as a planned funding source.
On Oct. 6, Reid compared the Des Moines team to the Iowa Cubs, an affiliate developing players for a parent club. At the Sept. 24 pitch, McDonough had argued that USL players are "not passing through on their way up the ladder."
Whether Des Moines ends up with one of those models, both or neither depends on questions no one has answered publicly: what HSH will ask taxpayers for, whether the state money tied to Dico can move, what the ISDF does with a lease and grants it still holds, and whether the council gives the signal HSH says it is waiting for.
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