Baker Mayfield and Nik Bonitto are helping drive Oklahoma City’s latest sporting venture after the two NFL players were confirmed among an expanding group of investors backing the city’s future professional soccer club and surrounding entertainment district.

The pair will be joined by Oklahoma City Thunder NBA star Jalen Williams and four-time Olympic gold medallist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone as the newest investor-partners in the project, adding further sporting star power to an ownership group that already includes NBA legend Russell Westbrook and former United States international striker Jozy Altidore.

The investment extends beyond the USL Championship expansion franchise itself, encompassing the wider mixed-use stadium district being developed by Echo Investment Capital around a new downtown multipurpose venue scheduled to open in 2028.

“This is a defining moment for Oklahoma City,” Echo Investment Capital founder and chief executive Christian Kanady said. “We have always believed sports can be a catalyst for community and economic growth, and to have athletes of this calibre put their names and capital behind that vision is extraordinary.”

For football fans, the announcement is particularly notable because it brings together two of Oklahoma’s highest-profile NFL figures. Mayfield remains one of the state’s most celebrated sporting icons after winning the Heisman Trophy as a Sooner before becoming the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Bonitto has rapidly established himself as one of the NFL’s premier young edge rushers with the Denver Broncos, earning first-team All-Pro honours after recording 16.5 sacks and two pick-sixes amid multiple turnovers last season.

For Bonitto and Mayfield, whose careers followed remarkably similar paths from Oklahoma high school football to starring roles with the Sooners before reaching the NFL, the investment represents another commitment to the state that shaped both their careers. Mayfield said the opportunity to invest represented a chance to give something back to the community that launched his football career.

“To partner with Christian and this group of exceptional athletes on a project rooted to grow Oklahoma City is something I’m genuinely proud of,” Mayfield said. “Oklahoma made me who I am as a player and as a person.”

Kanady believes the calibre of investors demonstrates widespread confidence in both the project and the city’s future.

“Jalen, Baker and Sydney each bring a unique platform and an authentic belief in what we are building here,” he said. “Together with Russell and Jozy, this investor roster reflects a level of conviction in Oklahoma City’s future you rarely see assembled around a single project.”

The stadium is expected to become the permanent home of Oklahoma City’s USL Championship expansion club when it opens in 2028, while the wider development aims to create a destination combining sport, entertainment, education and commercial space. It could eventually become home to more than just soccer too, as the United Football League has already announced its intention to place an expansion franchise in Oklahoma City, raising the prospect that the venue will also host professional spring football in the years ahead.