Des Moines, Iowa: City and Krause Group Resume Soccer Stadium Talks, Council Vote Set for Monday

Des Moines, Iowa, could be back in business with the Krause Group on a professional soccer stadium, two months after the city walked away from talks. A resolution on the City Council agenda for Monday, November 2, would restart work on a development agreement for the stadium district around the proposed stadium on the former DICO factory site, just south of downtown.

The Des Moines Register reported that City Manager Scott Sanders said the terms now under consideration would save Des Moines taxpayers more than $20 million compared with the terms discussed before. City officials declined on Friday, October 30, to say exactly how much support Krause had been seeking for the wider development.

What the council decides on Monday

Council members will vote on whether to set a public hearing on the proposed development agreement at the December 7 council meeting. The agreement includes a lease for the DICO site and the sale of a neighboring parcel, and a competitive bidding process will follow before the land can be sold.

The stadium itself would cost $95 million and would be owned by the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation. It would house a United Soccer League Championship men's team in the second tier and a first tier women's team in the Gainbridge Super League. Krause Group chief executive Kyle Krause holds both franchises. The city signed a 50 year lease in June for the land the foundation needs for the stadium and its plaza.

Krause has argued that the stadium financing does not work on its own. His company proposes about $550 million of development around it, with hotels, restaurants, offices and housing, and says the value added to the surrounding land is what makes the stadium possible.

The break in August, and the rival pitch

Talks began in 2019. They broke down in August 2026, when the city ended negotiations over the commercial development and said it would not go beyond the roughly $21 million it had already pledged to the stadium and plaza.

Weeks later, Major League Soccer interests pitched a rival plan: a $65 million stadium for a third tier MLS NEXT Pro team, a feeder side for Sporting Kansas City, on a Principal Financial parking lot near the Iowa Events Center. MLS NEXT Pro told the Register this week that it will not pursue the DICO site, while still calling its own proposal the better one.

Council member Josh Mandelbaum, whose ward covers downtown, backed a return to Krause, saying the two proposals are not close. Council member Rob Barron said the break in August may have helped, and said he will vote to set the public hearing so talks can continue, while he weighs whether more public money is justified.

A contaminated site at the center

The DICO land covers about 40 acres, bordered by Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to the north and the Raccoon River to the west and south. The old factory buildings are gone, but the site needs millions of dollars of further cleanup before anything can be built. The city has committed $13 million toward an estimated $20.6 million remediation cost for the stadium and plaza site, and Krause puts the cost of preparing the other 20 acres at $18.5 million.

Krause Group president and chief operating officer Helen Aboah said on Friday that the company has always believed in the project and is encouraged to be back at the table with the city. Work remains before any final agreement, and the public hearing in December will be the next full test of support.