Baltimore Deserves Soccer. Not Another Stadium Scam.
I was excited to see the headline recently that a professional soccer team might be coming to Baltimore, but legislation heard this week in the Maryland General Assembly is the wrong approach. SB 883 and HB 1078 get three things wrong, and all three can be fixed.
The wrong place
SB 883 would replace a historic working 60-acre golf course with a stadium and parking lot, exempt from normal planning and zoning review. Community leaders from Friends of Carroll Park and Citizens of Pigtown have publicly opposed the project.
Carroll Park has been a public recreation space for over a century. During segregation, it was often the only Baltimore golf course where Black golfers could play. The Pitch & Putt Golf Club, a Black women's club founded around 1938 and the second oldest in the country, played there (and still plays there). The Monumental Golf Club, a Black men's club, sued Baltimore multiple times for equal access to the City’s courses and eventually won. By 1951, all city golf courses were open to Black golfers. Their fight catalyzed the integration of Baltimore's entire public recreation system by 1956.
In 2022, the Pitch & Putt Club erected a monument at Carroll Park honoring that history.
A site study examined Swann Park as an alternative. DC United chose Carroll Park anyway.
The wrong funding
In 2020, Maryland voters legalized sports betting with the understanding that the revenue would support public schools. Since then, $244.9 million has gone to education through that mechanism.
SB 883/HB 1078 would authorize $216.6 million in state bonds for the Carroll Park soccer stadium. The bill repays the stadium bonds, principal and interest, through that same sports wagering revenue.The stadium gets paid for before the Blueprint for Maryland's Future education fund receives a dollar.
Maryland faces a $1.4 billion budget deficit in FY2027, projected to grow to $2.1 billion by FY2028. The state has already spent over $670 million in debt service on Camden Yards alone. The supporters of these bills are trying to offset the cost to taxpayers. But taking the money from public education doesn't actually save taxpayers money, it just shifts the debt to schools.
The wrong ownership
Under this deal, taxpayers fund the stadium and DC United captures the revenue. Game-day sales, broadcast rights, merchandise, naming rights. The public bears the risk. The private owner collects the profit. This is the same model that produced a $1.3 billion public commitment to the Orioles and a $600 million bond package for the Ravens that is already $55 million over budget.
Eighty-three percent of economists surveyed by the University of Chicago say stadium subsidies are not worth the cost. The pattern in Maryland is the same as everywhere else: public money in, private profits out, and the next deal is always bigger than the last one.
I have been advocating for public ownership of professional sports teams as part of this campaign since 2023. The argument is simple: taxpayers should not subsidize private owners when they can own the teams themselves. But this one also presents the clearest opportunity yet to do something about it.
A better deal
Major League Baseball and the NFL both ban community ownership. They can do this because federal antitrust protections shield their league rules from legal challenge. Soccer has no such protection. No federal law prevents a community from owning a soccer team. For baseball, you need Congress to change the rules. For soccer, you just need the will.
Community ownership already works in American sports. Many people are familiar with the Green Bay Packers, but the real opportunity for public ownership is in minor leagues of professional sports. In Chattanooga Tennessee, more than 3,200 fans bought shares in their local soccer club. The club now plays in MLS Next Pro, the same league as the proposed Carroll Park men's team. In Harrisburg Pennsylvania, the city bought its minor league baseball team in 1995 for $6.7 million, ran it profitably for twelve years, and sold it for $13.25 million with a 29-year commitment to stay. Those are models we should use if Maryland's six minor league baseball teams playing in taxpayer-funded stadiums ever threaten to leave.
But Baltimore does not need to buy an existing soccer team. There is no team yet. The state has the chance to build something community-owned from the start. Work with residents to find a site that doesn't take away the still working and historic golf course. Don’t use budget tricks to hide the cost of the investment. And instead of handing the franchise to an already wealthy DC ownership group, structure it so the city and the fans own the teams that play there.
Carmelo Anthony is a Baltimore native and an NBA Hall of Famer already investing in this project. Imagine if he said: join me in owning a piece of Baltimore soccer. Over three thousand people invested in Chattanooga's club. Baltimore is three times that city's size. We know this ownership model works and now is a great time to embrace it.
Baltimore deserves professional soccer. It should own the teams, not just the building.
Andy Ellis is seeking the Green Party nomination for Governor of Maryland. He and Lt. Governor candidate Owen Silverman Andrews are running on a platform of multiparty democracy, economic justice, and government accountability. Learn more at gogreen2026.com.