That’s the hope of Auburn city officials, who are looking for a qualified developer to build an indoor youth soccer facility on a block of downtown property.

The city already owns most of the block and is willing to sell or lease it.

The connection between indoor soccer and economic development seems logical, said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis, who is leading the city’s efforts to revitalize the downtown area.

“We’ve been looking at indoor youth sports,” he explained. “We want something for kids downtown … that can bring soccer moms downtown.”

Soccer parents mean foot traffic, and downtowns thrive on people who shop, walk and eat there, according to Dave Baron, the city’s economic development manager.

A discussion with an indoor soccer association a few months ago sparked the idea, he said.

Arena Sports, which has three indoor sports facilities in the Seattle area, met with Auburn officials recently and presented the results of a market study of the Kent-Auburn area for an indoor sports facility.

“This area was highly touted,” Baron said.

Both Auburn and Kent have outdoor tournament soccer.

“It’s a natural transition” to indoor games, Baron said.

Don Crowe of Arena Sports said the organization is interested in Auburn. Indoor sports complexes, he said, have proved over 30 years that they can generate foot traffic.

He estimated that his three complexes – at Magnuson Park in Seattle, in South Seattle and in Redmond – draw a total of more than 1 million people a year.

“You can draw thousands of people through a downtown area,” he said.

For Auburn, Crowe said a couple of indoor soccer fields plus an inflatable toy play area for a family entertainment/party center are possible.

The city has advertised for qualified developers to build an indoor facility on a city block south of East Main Street between Division Street and Auburn Avenue and between First and Second streets.

Called the Gambini block, it has two small homes on it, plus the building that used to house the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce.

It is one of five downtown blocks that the city has targeted for redevelopment. A private hotel/water park project slated for the block directly north died this year when a former Microsoft executive couldn’t secure financing.

The city wants to fill the entire Gambini block with a multistory structure that would include a parking garage. Local leaders also want retail on the first floor facing Division Street, where they would like to create a three-block-long promenade.

The second floor could contain the fields and other indoor sports amenities, such as sports film preview rooms and fitness rooms.

Baron said there’s no firm concept of what the sports facility might look like – that would be up to the developer, though mixed use with ground floor retail is the city’s preferred direction for downtown redevelopment.

Auburn wouldn’t be the first local city to hitch its economic fortunes to soccer.

In nearby Fife, plans for a $15 million first-class outdoor soccer park deflated last year after the city spent nearly $4 million on land, planning, engineering and staff time. Youth soccer groups said they couldn’t get a reasonable lease guarantee from the city.

Marion Bowers, who co-owns the indoor Soccer Center in Tacoma on the eastern edge of the Dome District, said indoor sports facilities can work. Her center used to be the home of the Tacoma Stars pro soccer team and then went through several owners before Bowers took over two years ago.

“We are an economic generator,” the former soccer mom said, noting that a recent tournament drew 1,500 people.

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692