As a Buffalo native, Peter Marlette grew up around a sporting landscape where soccer had a solid presence, but one that was overshadowed by the NFL’s Bills and NHL’s Sabres.

When he returned to the city late in 2023 to head up Buffalo Pro Soccer, he found a city whose soccer culture had been transformed.

“[I’d] been away from Buffalo for about eight years, and it was a great soccer scene when I left,” Marlette told Morning Kickaround this week. “When I came back, totally different soccer scene, unbelievable. There was really one soccer bar in Buffalo when I left eight-plus years ago. When I came back, you go to countless bars throughout Buffalo and Western New York on a Saturday or a Sunday morning, and they are just full.”

Now, the pieces are in position to deliver fans across the city and region their own club.

Last week, Buffalo Pro Soccer unveiled renderings of a new 7,600-seat venue that will become the club’s home as it plans to enter the USL Championship for the 2026 season.

• ON SITE: Located at Elk and Lee Street, the aim is for the venue to be part of a new entertainment district located close to the Buffalo River. This week, the club announced it had rapidly received more than 1,000 season ticket deposits since they became available upon the launch of the renderings.

• BUILDING PROCESS: According to Marlette, the group initially began with around 25 prospective locations around the city when it began the process before whittling that number down to three six months ago. The location in the Valley district of Buffalo was the final one selected, with the location one that Marlette believes is the correct one for the project.

• HE SAID IT: “As you guys know, stadium and stadium location are really defining factors of the club in the U.S., for a club anywhere, but especially in the U.S. and USL. … [It’s] about two minutes from Larkinville, which is probably my favorite neighborhood in Buffalo, and right outside of downtown. It’s a great site, and we’re going to be able to be up and playing by that 2026 season, which has been the goal from day one.” – Marlette to Morning Kickaround

As plans for construction move ahead, the work to build a team that can compete in the USL Championship is already well underway. The former General Manager at Union Omaha, where he served for three seasons and oversaw two Players’ Shields and one League One title between 2021 and 2023, Marlette has previously proven an astute mind when it comes to on-field success and roster construction.

He’s now aiming to bring the lessons he learned from that experience while building a squad from the ground up. With the opportunity USL’s implementation of promotion-and-relegation will bring an organization like Buffalo Pro Soccer in the future, Marlette sees big things ahead for his hometown club.

“This is going to separate USL from the rest of professional sports in this country, and it’s a huge opportunity,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for us to win our way to Division One status and earn our way to Division One status by putting a good product on the field. That’s what I did in Omaha, and that’s what we’re going to do here.”

• LEARN MORE: Listen to Peter Marlette’s full interview with Morning Kickaround, which also discusses club branding and a timeline for the stadium’s construction.