Sporting Cascades FC to make Civic Park its home in 2027

Sporting Cascades FC said it will call Civic Park home beginning in 2027, giving Eugene a clearer long-term soccer anchor at 2077 Willamette Street, near South Eugene High School, where a 3,500-seat venue has already become one of the city’s most visible sports sites.

The move matters well beyond a ribbon-cutting. A permanent home helps steady scheduling, ticket planning, youth outreach and community partnerships, and it gives families, coaches and local supporters a fixed place to follow the club instead of wondering where it will land next season. For a region that has watched the project evolve for more than a decade, the announcement also strengthens Civic Park’s role as a community sports destination rather than just a stadium site.

Civic Park rose from the old Civic Stadium property, which Eugene Civic Alliance acquired in 2015 after raising $4.5 million. The original stadium was built in 1938, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and destroyed by fire on June 29, 2015 after an arson that led to charges against four boys. The site has carried that history ever since, and the new complex has been built with that memory in view.

Eugene Civic Alliance said its Civic Park capital campaign reached $48 million in 2022, and local coverage reported the final $700,000 gift in April 2026 that put the project over the top. Kidsports describes Civic Park as Eugene’s home for community sports and recreation, with Phase I including the Kidsports Fieldhouse and the Market of Choice Field, while broader reporting has described the outdoor grandstand as seating 3,500 spectators. In Kidsports materials, the grandstand has also been described as seating up to 2,500 in one configuration, underscoring that the venue is still being discussed in both current and expanded terms.

The club’s timing has shifted. USL awarded Eugene a League One franchise on April 18, 2024 and originally expected the club to play at the new Civic Park stadium, but Sporting Cascades FC later pushed its debut back to at least 2027. That delay now aligns the club’s first season with the venue’s readiness, rather than forcing a temporary stopgap.

That matters for Lane County because Civic Park has already functioned as more than a professional soccer site. Lane United FC matches and a first responders game in 2025 helped establish it as a civic gathering place, one that youth players, families and regional visitors already recognize. Sporting Cascades FC’s decision to plant itself there gives Eugene a more stable sports identity and extends the site’s transition from historic stadium, to fire scar, to modern community athletics complex.