Dustin Johnson, a worker for Chase Excavation, compacts soil over newly laid utility lines at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Wednesday as part of a series of renovations to the facility. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The first stage of the Portland Hearts of Pine soccer club’s privately funded renovation project at 6,000-seat Fitzpatrick Stadium is almost complete.

The Hearts of Pine will open their inaugural season in the USL League One in spring 2025. Before then the club intends to make a variety of improvements to the city-owned stadium, including new lights, the installation of home and visiting team locker rooms, a new artificial turf playing surface and significant upgrades to the outdated press boxes. Those big-ticket items are scheduled to be done in December.

During the last two weeks, crews have done some important site work, including installing underground utilities – electricity, water, sewer, gas, and fiber for internet. On Wednesday afternoon, one crew from Chase Excavating of Falmouth was busy back-filling a utility trench between the southern end zone and the backside of nearby Hadlock Field while another was digging up and clearing old asphalt adjacent to the visiting bleachers, near where the locker rooms will be placed.

Hearts of Pine President Kevin Schohl said between $400,000-500,000 will be spent on the utility work, excavation and repaving. Construction work will be suspended after this weekend because Portland High sports teams start practicing Monday. Fitzpatrick Stadium is Portland High’s home field. The renovation work will resume in December after the conclusion of the fall sports season.

“This stage is supposed to be done Sunday,” Schohl said. “Unitil is putting in a gas line on Friday. Assuming all goes well with that, we’ll wrap up Sunday. This was a lot of prep work. Come December there’s no activities at the field that should support us and then we’ll just coordinate doing the field, the lights, the locker rooms, the press box in that December time frame.”

As part of its nonexclusive lease agreement with the city, which is rent-free for up to 10 years, Portland Hearts of Pine is required to spend at least $1 million in renovations and improvements to the city-owned stadium prior to playing its first game. In reality, the Hearts will spend more like $2.5 million, said Schohl and Gabe Hoffman-Johnson, founder and the club’s point person throughout its five-year process of bringing a USL League One franchise to Portland.

Gabe Hoffman-Johnson, a founding investor in the Hearts of Pine USL soccer team, leans against a goal post at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Wednesday as site preparation for team locker rooms takes place in the background. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

“This is a significant private investment in a public-use facility,” Hoffman-Johnson said. He noted that the improvements are necessary to bring Fitzpatrick up to a professional standard. This includes improved lighting and internet connectivity in the press box, which is needed for broadcasting. The improvements will also benefit the many other teams that use the facility, most notably the ones from Portland Public Schools.

The field turf is scheduled to be removed after the annual Portland-Deering Thanksgiving Day football game. Energy efficient LED lights will replace the old bulbs. Two modular-style buildings – manufactured by WillScot at its Auburn location – will be delivered and outfitted for locker room use.

Schohl said city rules make construction of a permanent locker room difficult.

“So technically, these are modular buildings similar to what you would see at a work site or a school,” he said, adding that the cost will be greater because of the increased need for showers and toilets to accommodate a full team of athletes. The Hearts’ home locker room will be for their sole use. The visiting locker room will be available to Portland High teams and other users, Hoffman-Johnson said. Currently, there are no locker rooms at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Portland teams share space in the basement of the Portland Exposition building with the Maine Celtics.

The USL League One season runs from mid-March to October. Schohl and Hoffman-Johnson said they don’t expect the Hearts’ first home game to be until mid-April to early May, which will allow a bit of extra time to make final improvements to Fitzpatrick and focus on the game-day experience for fans. The club has over 3,100 season-ticket deposits at $25 per seat.

The 12-team USL League One is considered a third-tier league in the United States professional soccer pyramid. Major League Soccer is the only first-tier league, and USL Championship is the lone second-tier league.

Portland is one of six expansion franchises scheduled to make its League One debut in 2025. The others are in Naples, Florida; Santa Barbara, California; Lancaster, California; Westchester County, New York; and Sherman, Texas.