Bellwater River FC is studying a preliminary plan to expand Millrace Stadium from its current 14,500-seat capacity to roughly 18,000, club owner Nathaniel Pruitt said this week, a project driven by attendance growth that has repeatedly pushed the riverside venue near a sellout this season.
Pruitt said the club commissioned an early feasibility study after this season’s home opener drew a franchise-record crowd of 14,478, a figure that came within a few hundred seats of the stadium’s permanent capacity and outpaced even the growth the front office had projected entering the season. The preliminary estimate for the expansion, which would add roughly 3,500 seats along the stadium’s open end, is $45 million, though Pruitt cautioned that figure could shift as the study progresses.
“We built this stadium on the site of an old textile mill assuming it would meet our needs for a long time,” Pruitt said. “The last few seasons have told us we may need more room sooner than we expected. We’d rather start planning now than turn fans away at the gate.”
A site with limits
General Manager Renee Dubois said the stadium’s riverside location, adjacent to the Kestrel River Greenway, complicates the expansion in ways a landlocked venue would not face, requiring the club to work closely with the city on zoning and floodplain considerations before any construction could begin. “This isn’t a site where we can just build outward in any direction we want,” Dubois said. “We have to be thoughtful about the river and the greenway, which means this process is going to take time.”
Council Member Aisha Muhammad, whose Riverside Heights district sits near the stadium, said she supports the club’s growth in principle but has concerns about traffic and parking that an expansion of that scale could bring to nearby residential streets. “I want this team to succeed, and I understand what it means for the neighborhood’s identity,” Muhammad said. “But 3,500 more fans on a game night is 3,500 more cars looking for somewhere to park, and that’s a conversation we need to have honestly before anyone breaks ground.”
An expansion like this only works if it grows the experience for everyone, not just the people who can afford the new premium sections. We want to hear from the neighborhood and from our existing fans before this becomes a final plan.
Nathaniel Pruitt, Owner, Bellwater River FC
Fans watch closely, again
Nadia Correnti, spokeswoman for the supporters’ group known as the Millrace Faithful, said members welcome the idea of more capacity but remain wary that new seating could be built primarily for premium ticket buyers rather than the general-admission sections that have historically anchored the club’s atmosphere. “We’ve asked the club directly to make sure any expansion includes affordable sections, not just suites,” Correnti said. “Growth is good, but only if the people who built this atmosphere from the beginning still have a place in it.”
Dubois said the preliminary plans do include a mix of seating types, though the final configuration will depend on the feasibility study’s results and any conditions attached to city approval. “We’ve heard the concern about affordability loud and clear,” she said. “Any expansion we bring forward is going to need a real answer to that question, not just premium seating for the sake of revenue.”
Head coach Diego Salcedo said the players have taken notice of the growing crowds this season and would welcome an even larger stadium if the expansion moves forward. “You feel the difference on the field when the building is full,” Salcedo said. “A bigger version of that atmosphere would be an advantage for us, no question.”
Pruitt said the club expects the feasibility study to take several more months, with any formal proposal to the city council still likely more than a year away. If approved, he said construction could begin in roughly two years, timed to avoid disrupting a full season of play. “We’re at the very beginning of this process,” Pruitt said. “But the demand we’re seeing at the gate tells us it’s a conversation worth having now rather than waiting until we’re turning fans away every week.”
Muhammad said she has asked the club to commit to a traffic and parking study specific to Riverside Heights before any expansion proposal reaches the council for a vote, separate from the stadium feasibility work the club has already commissioned. “I don’t want this to become a fight between a popular team and its neighbors,” she said. “I want the club to do the homework upfront so that fight never has to happen.”
Dubois said the front office intends to hold community meetings in Riverside Heights before finalizing any expansion design, a step she said the club views as necessary given the stadium’s proximity to residential streets. “We want neighbors to help shape this, not just react to it after we’ve already decided everything,” Dubois said. “That’s true for the parking conversation and it’s true for the affordability conversation with our own fans.”