Plans to bring professional soccer to Baltimore remain without a funding source after legislation to build a soccer stadium stalled out in Annapolis.

D.C. United, the Major League Soccer team located inside the other beltway, is eyeing Baltimore for a women’s team in the top-flight USL Super League and a minor league men’s side competing in the MLS Next Pro league.

But a measure in the Maryland House and Senate that would have allocated $217 million to build D.C. United a stadium on the Carroll Park Golf Course in Southwest Baltimore didn’t make it out of committee in either chamber, effectively killing it this legislative session.

“When we introduced the legislation, the purpose was not to get it funded,” Sen. Antonio Hayes, who sponsored the bill, said in an interview. “The purpose was to keep the conversation going.”

Samantha Ward, a D.C. United spokesperson, said the club would continue its work to bring pro soccer to Charm City.

“We remain actively engaged with state and local leadership to advance a sustainable funding strategy and carry this momentum forward, confident in the alignment behind bringing this project to life,” Ward wrote in an email.

The Carroll Park location has been met with community pushback. The nine-hole golf course holds historic significance; Black golfers who played there in the first half of the 20th century became “catalysts” who integrated Baltimore’s public recreation facilities, according to a plaque erected in 2022.

“There’s some serious community opposition,” Hayes, a West Baltimore Democrat, said. “I think there’s still [an] ample amount of time to have discussions to see if they would be open to it, but I don’t think it’s my job to convince them.”

That’s D.C. United’s job, Hayes said. Officials with the team told lawmakers in early March they were committed to honoring the course’s legacy. Any development, however, would mean the end of the golf course, which has some of the lowest greens fees in the region.

There are also concerns about increased traffic and what new development would mean for the only large park in that corner of Baltimore.

At a February news conference, D.C. United Co-Chairman and CEO Jason Levien and Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott promoted a potential soccer stadium and youth academy, funded in large part by the state government. Carmelo Anthony, the basketball star who grew up in Baltimore, would be involved in the teams’ ownership, they said.

However, key stakeholders with oversight of the state budget, including Gov. Wes Moore, were not present for the announcement. A spokesperson for Moore, a Democrat, later said his office looked forward to “learning more about potential revenue sources for the proposed soccer stadium.”

Scott’s office declined to comment.

Maryland’s budget is tight, and lawmakers have had to weigh which programs to cut to close a $1.4 billion shortfall beginning in July. It’s expected that the state will be even more cash-strapped in the years to come.

Baltimore has long had a penchant for soccer, and it’s one of the largest cities in the U.S. without a pro outdoor team. (The Baltimore Blast play indoors.) Elected leaders have proposed building a stadium in decades prior, but nothing has come to fruition.

The state has spent billions in recent years funding other sporting venues — M&T Bank Stadium, Oriole Park, minor league ballparks and Pimlico Race Course — though economists often argue against using public dollars to support privately owned teams. They cite education, transportation and tax relief as more beneficial uses of state money.

Still, lawmakers weren’t ready to shut the door entirely on a Baltimore soccer stadium.

“I think it’s very exciting,” Sen. Pamela Beidel, the Senate Finance Chair and an Anne Arundel County Democrat, said in early March. “But we’ll see where the money comes from.”