New Orleans is set to get a minor league soccer franchise, but where will the team play?

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The United Soccer League is expanding to New Orleans and plans to have a new team playing in its top-tier Championship League by 2025.

The 10-year-old soccer league, which has been operating hitherto as an informal farm team affiliate of Major League Soccer, now wants to start its New Orleans franchise before 2026 to take advantage of anticipated enthusiasm for the sport ahead of the FIFA World Cup tournament at U.S. venues that year. The plan is to have both men's and women's teams playing in the league's top division, the USL Championship League.

The investors behind the initiative say they are launching a promotional campaign this week to ask local soccer fans for their opinions on where the team should play, its name and its colors.

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Warren Smith and Jamie Guin, whose company USL Nola has the rights to develop the New Orleans team, said they have had talks over the past few months about several potential sites, although they would not discuss specifics, citing confidentiality agreements.

The preferred venue, according to people familiar with the talks, would be a newly built stadium in the River District, the $1 billion entertainment-focused development being planned on the east bank near the Crescent City Connection. That project is designed to erect housing, shops, office buildings, hotels and an array of entertainment and cultural venues on 39 currently barren acres owned by the state-controlled Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Michael Sawaya, president and general manager of the convention center, said a soccer venue is one of many ideas under consideration, adding that it would seem to fit with the overall plan for River District. "As location is a key factor for any stadium development, the dynamics of a multi-function stadium seems to fit well with our tourist-centric model."

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The United Soccer League developers have been in talks with ASM Global, which manages Caesars Superdome, the Smoothie King Center and the minor league baseball park in Metairie, among other venues. ASM has said previously it would like to partner with the River District consortium, led by local developer Louis Lauricella, for any new sports-entertainment complex that would be part of the project.

An ASM spokesman said they would not comment on the United Soccer League expansion until after an official announcement from Smith and Guin. Lauricella also declined to comment.

USL Nola has considered the baseball stadium, known as the Shrine on Airline, and Pan American Stadium in City Park, although neither would seem to fit the company's stated preference to be in an "urban core" location where fans would be close to other forms of entertainment before and after matches. Smith also said Pan American Stadium, currently home ground for the New Orleans Jesters of the semi-professional National Premier Soccer League, has very limited parking.

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