Women’s professional soccer has been a long‑circulating prospect in the Valley, resurfacing every few years without gaining traction. Now, the idea is moving closer to reality.

After a series of stops, starts and near misses, the issue has been passed to the public. Sunny Day Sports introduced Founding Fans, a petition‑style initiative giving residents a formal avenue to show support for a women’s professional soccer team at the Palo District. If the vote crosses the line, it will mark a major win for the region’s sports landscape, adding a new contender to an already competitive field.

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“This is about showing what’s possible when a community comes together,” said Vicki Mayo, chairwoman, co-founder and principal owner of Sunny Day Sports.

Recently approved by the City of Mesa, Sunny Day Sports’ plans will redevelop the 80-acre former Fiesta Mall site into the Palo District, anchored by a $100 million Women’s Health Campus, Arizona’s first medical facility dedicated exclusively to women’s health, research and performance.

“Palo District is about more than professional sports — it’s about creating a place where families gather, young athletes find inspiration, and our community sees itself reflected on and off the field,” Mayo said. “The Founding Fans initiative gives Arizonans a voice in shaping that future.”

Since the Palo District announcement, Mayo said she has been inundated with messages from the community expressing its support for a women’s soccer team.

“As the months went on and we kept getting more and more requests, we thought, ‘Why not create a formalized initiative that would give everyone a place to publicly voice their support and turn that into a tool — or a petition, if you will — to share with the leagues,’” Mayo recalled.

“So, we launched the Founding Fans initiative about a week ago, with the goal of creating a vehicle to be able to get 10,000 fans [votes] in 10 days.”

Mayo said the initiative has collected just under 10,000 signatures. She has received notes from young female soccer players who wish to play professionally.

“They are thrilled about the opportunity to potentially play for their home state,” she added. “I’ve also received so many messages from moms and dads who are just really grateful to have a place for their children to grow up and have a role model. Here, we’ve had a number of sports medicine and other innovative new technologies come to the table and want to talk about being part of our Women’s Innovation Center.”

To become a Founding Fan and to receive updates about the project’s progress, sign up at sunnydaysports.com.

The district will have a mix of restaurants and retail, lodging, office and medical office space, multifamily residential, entertainment venues, and sports facilities.

Mayo said it is too early to discuss any other details about the sports initiative.

“Our interest is just really in creating that grassroots initiative and empowering Arizonans to be able to say the community led the effort to bring a team to here,” she added.

“When I think about our sports teams, whether it be our existing teams of football, baseball and basketball, I think about the up-and-coming new soccer teams that we want to bring. I think of those as a community asset.”

She hopes the area will be the “crown jewel for the city of Mesa,” which has more than 500,000 residents, all of whom live close.

“They’re 15 minutes from Scottsdale; 15 minutes from Tempe; 15 minutes from your Chandler / Gilbert areas,” Mayo said.

“Our site has really great ingress and egress.”

The Arizona market is unique, in that many of its residents have moved from elsewhere.

“If you grew up a Yankee or a Dodgers fan, you’re always going to be a Yankee or Dodgers fan,” said Mayo, who was identified as top potential for the Olympics for horseback riding in the sport of dressage.

“Arizona is more of a transient community. Now, I would say, in my children’s generation, a lot of kids were born here and have stayed here. For them, this is going to be their home team. ‘This is my Arizona team’ and I think it’s going to be something really special.”

Sports have been a “saving grace” to Mayo, who has four children, two of whom she adopted when she was 20.

“I found the boys abandoned in an apartment,” she said. “They were 12 and 13. I will tell you that sports were the thing that kept them out of trouble and kept myself sane when I think about being a mom at such a young age. Boys have this endless energy.

“They played every sport they could — football, basketball and baseball. We put them in field hockey because, in India, after cricket, field hockey is the next biggest sports. We didn’t have cricket in Arizona at the time. So, sports were a saving grace.”