U.S. Soccer’s main headquarters is on its way to Atlanta.
A National Training Center and headquarters for U.S. Soccer has be funded by Atlanta United and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, U.S. Soccer announced Friday. Blank is contributing $50 million towards the project, which should have a final site chosen by January 2024.
“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,” said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. “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,” Cone added.
The facility will serve as headquarters for the USSF, creating a central hub for the entire soccer community, including coaches and referees, to access best-in-class training, technology and infrastructure to promote successful and sustainable playing environments throughout the country.
Players will receive the best environment, guaranteeing uninterrupted access to elite infrastructure for training, development, recovery and performance analysis.
“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,” said Blank. “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,” he added.
U.S. Soccer announced it would be departing its longtime home of Chicago after its property was sold in August.
Amazing for the 404!! Eastside / Zone 6, this is for you.
Can we take about how Miles Robinson was accused of stealing that shot at a bar in ATL. when he didn’t do it and it was racism by those alabaster employees, but a lot of you all don’t want to have that convo. As a Black and Brown man that crap pissed me off. I don’t care who mad about me bringing it up. #Blacklivesmatter ✊🏿 🇺🇸 🇵🇷
Is your reply about the fact that the training center is moving to Atlanta despite the event you mention? If so, ok. Unfortunately, there is racism everywhere in the US, no? And how do you know a lot of us don’t want to have that conversation? Oh right, you don’t. Because you’ve never asked before. And if you do sense a lack of interest in your comment maybe it has more to do with you sort of trying to hijack the thread. I for one have never heard this story you mention. Maybe next time instead of randomly accusing some people of not being interested why not just post a link that describes the event and invite peeps to comment from there?
Actually he did do it. He plucked a shot off a passing drink tray. He was just like: “it was a $5 drink.” Was it blown out of proportion? Probably. But the dude also should have paid for his drink, and there’s really no telling from afar if the club employees were being Karens or if Robinson was being a drunken clown and stuff escalated because he got belligerent. I both bartended and bounced back in college and I can tell you there were a ton of guys who were perfectly pleasant sober who turned into complete assclowns when alcohol got involved, and there was absolutely no telling who it was going to be. So…that’s the sort of situation I’ll just shrug and go: “who knows?” because I wasn’t there.
And the ATL is probably the most cosmopolitan place in the USA, and certainly on the East Coast. Probably half the people (or more) are from somewhere else, and that “somewhere else” is all across the globe. If you can’t deal with people of any color or nationality, Atlanta is not the place for you. And I cannot exaggerate the extent of youth soccer or just support for soccer in general in the ATL. It’s thicker on the ground there than anywhere else in the country I’ve ever seen. Arthur Blank – who is known as “Uncle Arthur” in Atlanta – also built started building 5-a-side soccer pitches in MARTA stations for underserved communities in the city; it’s one of the cooler ideas I’ve seen and it integrates soccer in a way I’ve never seen before.
Also, Atlanta’s airport is one of the biggest hubs in the US; you can catch flights there from anywhere, anytime. Especially considering that the majority of your senior players are going to be flying in from Europe, having a flight hub on the East Coast is almost a necessity.
Plus there’s the matter Blank is shouldering a lot of the bill for this facility too. Money always does talk.
Atlanta’s hot enough to melt lead in the summer. That’s the big minus in my mind. Other than that, though, Atlanta’s almost inarguably one of the top 2-3 locations in the US for this.
Q, surely you are not seriously that ATL is “the most cosmopolitan” city in either the US? Hell, it’s not even the most on the East Coast. MAYBE in the South – but I’m confident Miami (at a minimum) would disagree.
I’d have definitely agreed with you even ten years ago. I’d still put LA and maybe New York ahead of Atlanta, though New York has gotten…I dunno, more ossified lately. Definitely has a ton of cultures, doesn’t seem to have a lot of new immigration coming in anymore because it’s so durn expensive. NYC is losing people and maybe it’s just me, but maybe some of its luster too. New York will likely always be New York, but it’s on a downswing at the moment. It’s losing a pretty steady five per cent of its population a year since about 2016 and that shows no sign of stopping soon.
Atlanta on the other hand is booming. It’s incredibly transient at the moment, and most of the folks moving there are young, educated, urbane…and from all over the world. I’ve actually heard Houston’s much the same but I only passed through there once maybe ten years back so I can’t attest to that.
Miami’s definitely multicultured…but would you call Miami as “cosmopolitan” as Atlanta, though? I haven’t spent a ton of time there either but my recollection was it had big Cuban and Venezuelan populations, some Haitians and a smattering of Caribbean islanders…and not many folks from Europe or Asia. But if you can figure who’s coming from where in the ATL you’re a lot more world-wise than I am. It seems to be from pretty much everywhere, the last decade or so. The incredible success of Atlanta United shows how much the town has changed; until that happened Atlanta was actually considered one of the worst sports towns in America and folks (on this very site, actually) once sneered that anybody was considering building an MLS franchise there.
i am fine with moving fed HQ out of chicago. i hope that this means the HC will no longer be forced to office with the fed brass, which struck me as pointlessly corporate and dictatorial. if the idea is a summer training base for, say, 2026, or any other time we need a home for a month, this is dumb. atlanta in the summer is hot and humid. for a long camp it doesn’t need to be any particular location, as much as “one spot.” the best reliable weather for “one spot” that time of year would be california, florida, maybe new england. the best altitude training would be the rockies and the cliche is colorado. there is a reason so many US sports’ national teams are out in either san diego or colorado springs. you are not more clever than the average bear by saying atlanta as with decades of experience there is probably a reason it’s not usually there.
i assume the big reason it’s there is blank is donating hefty coin for it to be there. he then has a turf field on his stadium so that’s not helpful. you then have to play outside in atlanta in june when it’s like 95 with 70% humidity. why not houston or dallas then.
It sounds like Soccer house is moving to the facility in Atlanta too so I’m not sure how that changes anything. Probably means “big brother” watches more. I don’t think it means every camp will be there though at least for the NTs. I don’t know exactly what is going to happen there but Argentina is building their’s in Miami so weather must not be that much of a concern. I’d guess California is too far from Europe and I’m not sure we play enough at altitude to base it in the Springs (also additional travel).
first, my best year in college i spent a week in boulder and denver training, running, and playing in a tournament right before i reported for college camp. it doesn’t just have use for altitude games. it’s a red cell benefit going back down to sea level, you can run for days.
second, i kind of assume the “national training center” is a field/stadium setup and not just a fed office.
third, i kind of get your point for a window. i am talking about a long camp tournament base ie the sort of thing you might use a training center for. a long camp where they are together for a month or 6 weeks who cares if it’s 2-4 hours longer flight.
fourth, being more concerned with flight length than cumulative caps and games strikes me as backwards. i am more concerned we are capping people 15+ times a year than whether the flight is 2-4 hrs more.
It is undoubtedly because of the $50 million from Atlanta United’s owner. Being from San Diego, I’d like to see it here since it has a much better climate and a lot of US Olympic training facilities close by, but money talks.
It’s too far from Europe though. Plus how do you keep the players fit with all the fish tacos they’d be eating in San Diego.
As quozzel said ATL is pretty much the capital of the South!
Gary, 50 million is a green light done deal. Plus, Blank ‘s project will hit the ground running assuming he already owns the land, has all the design and engineering, and also the ability to push through bonds for infrastructure. Assuming this will be a campus like setting with various housing for the various levels of player development. Cost of doing business in ATL is significantly cheaper than any more desirable location.
However, not ideal source region for weather. With the Gulf of Mexico having a dominate influence and the cP air masses sliding down creating chaotic weather patterns.
I said, being from San Diego, I’d like to see it here. Being realistic, I realize the chances of anything like this coming to San Diego are very slim. When people think of California, they think of LA and San Francisco and ignore San Diego. I would never expect San Diego to be seriously considered. Even though soccer is very popular here, we didn’t get an MLS franchise until this year.
for a friendly they are more likely to simply set up shop where the games are. a “national training center” is more like what you use for a 3-4 week extending camp leading up to GC, CA, NL, world cup. that should be someplace with good training weather and perhaps altitude benefit. if you have ever played in the south in the summer you get less work done for more effort because it’s so hot and humid. it’s only useful if you anticipate playing in heat and humidity for the event, and even then a week is enough acclimatization.
this is about money as it offers no summer training base benefit. it could also be used for january camp but that’s often limited value back to first team. you really want the value for the first team in the summer. it’s like when we were going to train in january in the middle east. yeah, how many january guys are going to make qatar?
As for Colorado Springs, I lived there for 12 years. Summers are nice weather, but the winter and spring aren’t very conducive for soccer. You can have significant snow from November into April. Remember the Snowclassico in late March. Winter highs still just get into 20s and 30s. It is home to an Olympic Training Center but they’re indoor sports. It’s used by shooting sports and wrestling are big ones. Other sports rotate through around the Olympics or World Championships. USA Basketball is headquartered there but the National teams don’t train there, just the youth teams before competitions. The men usually train in Vegas not sure about where the women train.
the time period when you have long camps is usually summer and my experience playing up there in about 3 weeklong summer tournaments was you had predictable daily showers/t-storms but otherwise mild weather. i get what you’re saying about cooler months but that’s usually friendly windows and not long camps. only exception would be, say, january camp for the B team. if making the Bs comfortable in january is the primary concern we’re going about it backwards. you want the As comfortable at the site in may or june.
Weather in Colorado is changing like everywhere I guess. Still not much humidity but temperatures are getting higher and the rain is less consistent. When I moved there early 2000s most houses in the Springs didn’t have AC. Now it would be hard to find a new home without it.
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I think like my USA Basketball example the first team isn’t going to ever use the training center no matter where it is. Except like you said maybe January. Even before WC or Copa America (won’t be finished in time anyway for ‘24).