U.S. Soccer announced Friday that it will build a national training facility in the Atlanta metropolitan area funded in part by a $50 million donation from Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank.
The federation has not yet finalized an exact location for the facility, but it hopes that construction will begin next year. U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson is currently leading the search for the site, which will be selected in January 2024.
The organization has also not set a target opening date for the facility, which will serve as headquarters for U.S. Soccer, currently based in Chicago. It will include training fields, facilities for coaching and referee education, recovery and performance analysis and other infrastructure. It will also host youth tournaments and soccer conferences.
“America’s top athletes deserve the best when it comes to preparing them for competition on the global stage and I’m thrilled U.S. Soccer has chosen metro Atlanta as its new home,” Blank said in a statement. “Atlanta’s incredible passion for soccer, corporate community and unmatched infrastructure make this a natural home for the national training center and I’m very confident our community will help America’s finest soccer players compete on a global level like never before. I’m also pleased to help U.S. Soccer with community outreach and soccer development among underserved communities as part of our contribution and know that it will benefit scores of young people through engagement with the beautiful game for generations to come.”
_The Athletic_reported in February that U.S. Soccer was considering Atlanta and Cary, North Carolina for its training facility. The Cary bid would have utilized the existing infrastructure at WakeMed Park. The federation previously said in an email in late 2022 to donors that it needed to raise $300 million for the training center, which would include 14 or more training fields. U.S. Soccer continues to fundraise to raise money to build the new training center.
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How will the USMNT and USWNT use the facility?
It remains to be seen. While many European countries use their national training facilities as hubs for the senior teams during international windows, the size of the U.S. could make that challenging. U.S. Soccer would have to add an extra leg of travel for players flying in from Europe or their domestic clubs to train for a few days before flying to a game in another state. The U.S. men’s national team typically hosts its January training camp in Los Angeles, and it would likely be difficult to move that camp to Atlanta in the middle of winter.
U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter previously voiced his support for a national training center. Speaking last year during January camp, Berhalter said “it’s beneficial” for the federation to have a facility “not only for consistency of the senior team, but also to have all the other teams, the ability for them to be there as well.”
“I’ve been around the world and was lucky enough to see some of the national training facilities of other countries, like St. George’s in England,” said Berhalter. “And it’s a laboratory, man. You see all the coaches interacting, you see the teams there, and really, the players feel at home.”
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Will all U.S. Soccer fully relocate to Atlanta?
It’s not clear whether U.S. Soccer will require all of its employees to relocate from Chicago to Atlanta. The federation previously required employees to live in Chicago, though it has not always enforced that rule across the board. The federation has approximately 250 employees based in Chicago, including most U.S. Soccer coaches. The federation moved to Chicago in 1991 and was previously based in two refurbished mansions in the South Loop, dubbed “Soccer House.” The organization moved out of Soccer House last summer into an office building in downtown Chicago. It sold Soccer House for $3.9 million in August.
The timing of the move to a new facility will also be interesting in light of the fact that U.S. Soccer is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup. Whether the federation will take on moving to a new city while simultaneously planning the tournament remains up in the air. Parlow Cone previously said it would be “perfect to have a national training center ready before the World Cup in ’26.”
U.S. Soccer has other facilities in Los Angeles and Kansas city, Kan. that it shares with the LA Galaxy and Sporting Kansas City, respectively. The facility in Kansas City specifically aids in coaching and referee education. The U.S. has used the LA facility for January camps and previously had offices for its sporting staff there. The Atlanta facility will be a dedicated home for the federation.
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How else will the facility be used?
The expectation is that all 27 national teams will utilize the facility, but it would likely have the biggest impact on the extended national teams and youth national teams by providing a singular hub for camps.
Blank, 80, designated a portion of his donation toward the construction of facilities for the extended national teams, particularly the cerebral palsy, deaf and power soccer national teams, including locker rooms and training facilities. The release also said Blake’s contribution would bolster “support of women’s youth national team camps and women’s coaching and mentorship initiatives.”
The release says support from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation will provide community programming to benefit soccer-focused non-profits in the Atlanta area, including Soccer in the Streets and GA 100 to provide access, training and coaching opportunities to underserved communities.
The 2022 fundraising email said the new facility would also include a diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) innovation lab that would serve “as an incubator and funder for the best and most effective diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging projects to impact lives and fuel change across the soccer landscape.”
“This National Training Center will accelerate the growth of soccer in this country and will represent a commitment to developing elite soccer players for decades to come,” U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “Investing in youth and adult programs as well as our Extended National Teams reflects our commitment to ensuring that players of all ages and backgrounds can find a home and thrive in this sport. These investments are a signal to our players, coaches, referees, members and fans that the future of U.S. Soccer is bright.”
(Photo: John Dorton/USSF/Getty Images for USSF).
