ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – On Monday night, Albuquerque city council approved a 30-year lease agreement with New Mexico United for land at Balloon Fiesta Park.

New Mexico United shared new drawings of its future stadium, including an interior view of a new food hall, and what it would look like in the background of Balloon Fiesta.

“We’re utilizing about seven acres of a park that is almost 400 acres in size, and the land that we’re using is right behind these big power lines, so it’s a no-fly zone for balloons. So it’s a great use of what really is just land that’s not used almost all year, all year long,” said Peter Trevisani, New Mexico United president.

Trevisani says there’s a lot of work ahead, but they’re excited to finally have a home which will have multiple uses.

“A facility that’s open every day that could host new soccer games, state championships. We could get outside of soccer into other sports or other activities. So that is really the fun part, putting together appropriate programming that really serves the community,” said Trevisani. 

City Council President Pat Davis laid out the city and the team’s timeline.

“Lots of details still need to be worked out, including the first thing is the United owes the city and taxpayers a public presentation on how they’ll raise $30 million, and how exactly they’ll get the building constructed. They have nine months to do that. So by this time next year, we’ll know exactly what that will look like and what that schedule will be,” said Davis. 

During Monday night’s council meeting, there was also a question about restrooms at Balloon Fiesta Park.

Davis said the city was given $13 million from the state Legislature to create things like bathrooms and parking.

United says it’s looking into letting people use its facilities during big events like fiesta. 

The team has the ambitious goal of wanting its first game in the stadium by March 2026.

Community members still have time to appeal the zoning approval. That decision was made by the Environmental Planning Commission last week. City council could then decide to rehear the zoning decision, which would delay things a few weeks.