US Soccer Training Center Moving Along

A week ago, we got more information about the upcoming US Soccer national training center in Kansas City. At a Neighborhood and Community Development Standing Committee Meeting, more information about the project was presented to the committee (start at 1 hour 15 minutes into the video below). There was lots of information regarding not just the training center but also the long awaited tournament fields that were to be built in conjunction with the construction of Sporting Park in the first place, and the futsal courts that On Goal is building in Wyandotte County.

First let's get the futsal fields, On Goal has already built two fields currently and will be building eight more of those courts. On Goal will now built double courts on tennis courts and the two that they have already built can be expanded if the Unified Government first lays the surface for the expanded courts. Robb Heineman said that they want to be building on multiple sites at one time, starting as soon as possible. If things were finalized now they could start in April and have all eight additional courts finished by the end of 2015.

On one of the big points of the stadium that has yet to be fulfilled was the building of tournament fields at Wyandotte County Park. Originally as part of the plan to use parts of the STAR Bonds that were used to finance the Legends shopping area in the first place, On Goal and the then Wizards had to agree that they would build tournament quality soccer fields in the park. The new deal though will move the tournament fields from Wyandotte County park to a new site from a family (Speer) in Wyandotte County. The site is the far right purple area in the below screen shot.



The site, near the corner of State Ave. and 90th Street would see at least eight fields of the 12 fields built at the Speer Family site. The other four would be at the national training center, although in the presentation they showed that there is space at the site for another four fields to bring the total there up to 12. On Goal would have the rights to bring up projects in those areas, but would not stand in the way if other projects were brought up. Below is a closer picture of that portion of the project. The facility would be run by On Goal as part of their agreement with the county.

Now, for the big part of the project that the majority of people are probably interested in, the US Soccer national training center. According to the slides that were shown, it's a $64 million proposal for the project. The training center would be built on the northern end of the Schlitterbahn along Parallel Parkway, to the north and east of Sporting Park. The training center will have at least one build, but up to 100,000 square feet of space. During the discussion, Heineman also mentioned that US Soccer is looking for 100,000 of office space for 300 workers, and On Goal is wanting to go after that to try and get that deal here as well. You can see a closer break down of the facility below.

The facility would not have a set number of fields, as Heineman mentions, the topography of the area isn't the greatest and what they're going to do is look to maximize flat usage. The facility would be run by US Soccer, On Goal, or a combination of the two, that portion is still to be finalized.The hope according to the presentation is that the facility will be up and running by 2017.

The full presentation to the full board will take place on March 26th. You can watch the full meeting below.

"Major Announcement" Today

It's game day for Sporting Kansas City as the team takes on BPL Champions, Manchester City in a friendly at Sporting Park. The game though looks like it may not be the biggest news of the day (at least for me). Yesterday, Sporting Club announced that they would have a "major announcement" today that would include the club, Wyandotte County unified government representatives, and Kansas governor Sam Brownback.

The team's release doesn't say what the announcement today is about, the guess that has been made by many in the community is that this is going to have to do with the US training complex that the club had announced the intentions to build in 2013.

To add to that speculation, the training complex was a topic of discussion last week for the Unified Government. The training center would be at 98th and Parallel in Kansas City, Kansas, to the north and east of Sporting Park's current location. The complex would be included in the STAR Bonds that were used to build the Legends and Sporting Park and would anticipate opening in 2015.

The $65 million project would be another big step for Sporting Club in establishing Kansas City as the "Soccer Capital of the USA" that they've called KC since last year. And while in the past I've mocked that name a little bit, the club is certainly working very hard to make that true.

The training complex would include multiple outdoor fields as well as an indoor facility. I'm still hoping that part of the complex will include the re-establishment of the US Soccer Hall of Fame and it's archives, but that may still be wishful thinking.

Two Sporting Players Miss Out on Awards

Sporting KC defenders Matt Besler and Erik Palmer-Brown both ended up missing out on awards this week.

Starting defender, and US national team player, Belser was once again up for MLS defender of the year. Besler was a finalist along with New England's Jose Goncalves and LA's Omar Gonzalez. Besler ended up finishing a distant second to Goncalves who took the award. Goncalves finished with 36.74% of the club vote compared to Besler's 14.29%, 46.75% of the media vote to 27.27% and 18.83% of the player vote compared to 13.75%. In my opinion it's a fair win for the New England man, who had a very big season for the Revolution.

Sporting's latest home grown player, Palmer-Brown was also up for an award. The US U18 international was up for US Soccer's Young Male Athlete of the Year. Palmer-Brown ended up losing out on the award as well. The winner ended up being Columbus Crew midfielder, Will Trapp. Again it's hard to argue against this. Trapp, of the four nominees has had the most success so far at the club level along with playing for the youth national teams.

Hall of Fame Talk Back

US Soccer still doesn't not have a physical location for their hall of fame since closing their location Oneonta, New York. Sporting KC and Robb Heineman had always talked about the idea of bringing the hall of fame to Kansas City. Originally it was brought up as being part of the stadium the team was building. That has not happened and the idea of the hall of fame being here kind of went on the back burner.

Then earlier this year, Sporting announced that they were looking at the idea of building a national training and player development center in Kansas City. The hall of fame talk came back up regarding the Kansas City area. But comments at the time were made that the hall of fame would have to make financial sense to the team and US Soccer to put it there. Reading between the lines most people put the hall of fame idea back on hold.

Then today on Planet Soccer, Grant Wahl posted an interesting comment regarding a potential hall of fame in KC.

"Last week we talked about the lack of a home building for the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Well, I’ve learned Sporting Kansas City will include a new Hall of Fame in its proposal next month as part of a $40 million U.S. Soccer training facility that has already been announced as a plan for the area. U.S. Soccer says a new Hall of Fame would require a $10 million startup and a $2 million annual operating budget. We’ll see if it can get done in Kansas City."

So Sporting KC is getting ready to submit its proposal next month for the training facility in KC. The facility and it's $40 million price tag, is actually cheaper than the original $50 million Sporting stated. But that extra $10 million would go to the start up of the hall of fame. A $2 million annual operating budget wouldn't be easy, but with the hall of fame in a more accessible location you're going to probably get more people, and with it tied to an MLS team, you can hope for traveling MLS fans to visit the hall as well when coming to watch their team play KC.

I've said for the longest time that I'd love the hall of fame to be here in KC. Now I just need to work on my resume so I can apply for a position if it gets built.

Robb Heineman AMA

Robb Heineman was on Reddit today to have an AMA (Ask Me Anything). During the interview he gave some pretty candid answers to some questions and obviously had a bit of fun as well (including giving a date for the installation of the Sporting Blue turf).

Here are some of the highlights and some commentary.

Expansion of Sporting Park.

Heineman said that there is currently no time table for expansion of Sporting Park, and that demand for tickets in 2015 will help dictate when they'll look into expanding the stadium. When asked further questions regarding expansion of the stadium, Heineman responded that expansion would see about 8,000.  Most of them would be in the East Stand but a couple thousand he said would be above the Cauldron.

In regards to Sporting Park he was also was asked about when the team would look to move the team into downtown KC instead of out at the Legends. Heineman's response was 21 more years out at Sporting Park.

US Soccer Training Facility

Heineman was asked about this development and where they were in the process. Heineman responded by saying that the site selection should be done in the next 90 days and that construction to begin in the spring. In conjunction with that question, Heineman was asked about the Hall of Fame. He responded that they are interested in it but have not been approached.

US Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League

Heineman was asked a couple questions regarding some competitions outside of league play, the Open Cup and the CCL. He was asked what would be the best way to elevate the US Open Cup. Heineman's response was more prize money for the players (currently it's about $100,000 split between the players.

He was also asked about the CCL and it's priority. Heineman responded that it was a huge priority and then gave an example saying that Peter Vermes' incentive bonus for the CCL is the same as it is for winning MLS Cup. So either Sporting is placing a lot of priority on the CCL, or Vermes doesn't get a big bonus for winning MLS Cup.

USL Pro

Heineman was asked about the USLPro and Sporting KC's affiliate, Orlando City. Questions about his feeling on the partnership and how some Orlando fans aren't happy with a lot of the flipping of players. Heineman avoided that part of the question, stating how much he liked the partnership and how each guy that has gone has gotten better.

He was also asked whether KC would look to set up their own USLPro team.  Heineman responded that they were likely too if/when Orlando enters MLS and that the team would likely be within 200 miles of KC. When asked further his response was that Omaha, Des Moines, and the KC metro were the favorites. Omaha doesn't currently have minor league soccer but has a very nice stadium at Creighton, Morrison Stadium. Des Moines has one of the most successful PDL franchises, especially at the gate, but they don't have a stadium, currently playing on a high school football field. The KC metro would be an interesting idea, maybe putting a team up north, or out east to try to drive interest on that side of town without forcing fans across town to Sporting Park.

Player Acquisitions

Heineman was asked a number of questions about player acquisition related questions, many related to designated players and the types Sporting would look at.  Heineman said if they'd add a DP this season it'd be a number 10. He also stated their lack of interest in Ronaldinho and how they were looking more on the 27 or younger scale.  When asked about Jermaine Jones and his interest in MLS, Heineman said they weren't interested.

The part I found more interesting and not surprising based on his tweets was his response to the question about what the hardest part was about signing foreign players. The toughest part according to Heineman is dealing with agents and various "card" owners of players. It certainly seems to fit with many of the things we've heard over the last few years in regards to player signings, especially summer signings.

Overall plenty of good information in the AMA.

US Soccer Training Complex Renderings

Yesterday before the Gold Cup final, Robb Heineman tweeted out the above photo about the US Soccer training, coaching, and referee center that OnGoal is trying to get built in Kansas City. I know renderings can change (Sporting Park's renderings that were publicly released changed 3-4 times before the stadium was actually built), but the renderings of the facility look fantastic.

Sporting and US Soccer Studying US Soccer Facility in KCK

Since the opening of Sporting Park, Robb Heineman and Sporting KC have been angling to make Kansas City and Sporting Park the home for the US national team.  When asked about hosting World Cup qualifiers in KC, Heineman has jokingly, but in a serious tone said that he wants Kansas City to host all the games.  Now they've taken a big step to get there.

On Friday, Sporting KC announced that they were getting together with US Soccer to explore bringing a new national training and coaching development center to Kansas City, KS. The center would help to develop and train coaches, players, and referees of all ages. The project, which is estimated to cost $50 million would host US national team camps, coaching education, and referee development programing.

By tomorrow, Sporting is issuing a "Request for Proposals" to Wyandotte County land owners and real estate brokers to begin the process of finding the best location for the facility.

This announcement by itself is very big, it continues to show how Kansas City has become a major soccer community in the United Stats, the support for Sporting KC and the support that's been shown when the US plays here are two keys for that.  It also helps having a facility like Sporting Park available as well for games.  It'll become huge when they officially start breaking ground and building the facility.  It's amazing to think where this city was just 5 years ago when it came to professional soccer support and where it's at now. I am already looking forward to the facility being built and what it means not only for youth development at the national level, but also at the local level in Kansas City.