Phase Two of the ongoing development of BridgeWay Station began with a huge announcement on October 30th:  a soccer stadium will be built below the parking area.

The kickoff event on the 30th was MC’d by Mauldin City Counci lmember Taft Matney.  Speakers included Mauldin’s Mayor Terry Merritt, State Senator Ross Turner, State Representative David Vaughn, VP Rivers Hughes representing BridgeWay Station’s developers Hughes Investments, and Joe Erwin, Chairman for the Greenville Triumph and Greenville Liberty owner groups.

Dignitaries present also included Mauldin City Council members Carol King and Mark Steenback, and County Council members Butch Kirven and Liz Seman.

That stadium will be home for the Greenville Triumph soccer team and the Greenville Liberty soccer team.  The Greenville Triumph soccer team was founded in 2018, as a member of the United Soccer League (USL) League One.  The Greenville Liberty women’s soccer team joined the USLW in 2022. The stadium will be used by local soccer youth leagues and high school soccer teams as well as professional teams.  Its planned use includes not only soc-cer but also rugby, lacrosse, and football.  

Concerts, festivals, and other entertainment activities are also ex-pected for the stadium.  

The stadium’s estimated cost is approximately ninety million dollars.  Construction will begin in 2025 and is expected to be ready for use in 2026.

Chairman Erwin thanked businesses large and small for their support and help in making the soccer program a success.  He also emphasized that Mauldin’s support in making the stadium a reality has been essential to that success.  Talking about the effort that has gone into making the stadium a reality, Chairman Erwin said, “The surest way to predict the future is to invent it.”  Erwin finished up his speech by saying that the Mauldin Gateway Bridge will be a part of the Swamp Rabbit Trail, bringing the Trail through BridgeWay Station.  

A theme stressed by several speakers was that the new stadium will make Mauldin a popular destination for both residents and visitors to the Upstate.

Hughes Investments’ Rivers Hughes answered the question of the future of BridgeWay Station itself.  The stadium is Bridge-Way Station’s Phase Two.

There will be additional phases to the development of BridgeWay Station.  In response to an explicit question, Mr. Hughes said that Phase Three will include new construction of buildings on the land between the stadium and Bridges Road.  

From there, he said, future phases will include development along Holland Road and ultimately reaching to the Prisma Health Regional Distribution Center north of BridgeWay Station.●