[U.S. SOCCER] U.S. Soccer and Sporting Kansas City have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly explore bringing a $50 million National Training andCoaching Development Center to Kansas City, Kan.
The proposed project would be designed to develop a world-class soccer training facility and serve as the premier destination in theUnited States for player, coaching and referee innovation.
The state-of-the-art campus would be designed, developed and operated as a world-class training facility dedicated to the futureof American soccer. It would host U.S. national team camps, coaching education and referee development programming.
Sporting Club will seek out a request for proposals to land owners andreal estate brokers in Wyandotte County in an effort to help identify the best available location for the center.
“While it is certainly a great honor that the Federation is consideringKansas City,” said Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman, “it is also a great recognition of the community’s support of soccer. The National Training and Coaching Development Center wouldbring tens of thousands of hotel room nights and the futsal component has the potential to have a significant, long-term impact on youth development in our sport. We saw Matt Besler become the first player born in Kansas to play for the U.S. men’s national team earlier this year. We hope to see more players represent Kansas City in the future. Thisproject has both immediate, ongoing economic benefits and the potential for an incredible long-term benefit. The development center would place Kansas City at the center of soccer conversation, bothnationally and worldwide.”
Two Questions:1. Why would you build a stat of the art development center in Kansas City? Perhaps a known soccer hotbed, i.e. LA, would allow its resources to be intensified.2. Is a $50 million dollar “state of the art” facility the key to producing talent? Take a look at talent hotbeds around the world, many of their facilities are the opposite of “state of the art”
There is already one in LA. It makes sense in a country as physically huge as the USA to spread the centers out… KC makes sense as it is in the center of the country geographically.
You could make an argument, though, that they should all be in warm weather locations so as to be useful 12 months a year. Houston might have been the choice for the central time zone.