Change of stadium site in Poulsbo?

The Kitsap Sun reports today that the soccer stadium site may move to make if more feasible financially as well as to ease parking and public utility issues.

Read Chuck Stark's story HERE.

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."