USSF National Training Center

do you think that additional training centers might now be added maybe in both the Pacific NW and maybe New England as well?

 

That would be my guess, actually. Especially if the project shows positive results, other cities are going to try to vie for this sort of thing as well. I have no problem being a hub rather than the hub.

 

There's a bunch in the LA game thread too... I almost asked you to spin those out yesterday, but I was lazy.

 

yeah, that's kinda what I was getting at. Definitely not trying to rain on your parade, but I was thinking that maybe 3 regional training locations might be better for us in the long run than just one cental location. But congrats!!!

 

Not to pee in anybody's Cheerios about the whole Nat'l Team Training Center, but I really havent heard too much from USSF on the subject. I went and checked ussoccer.com . There, I found zero mention of the planned facility.*

Odd for a couple of reasons. A) Gulati isn't exactly camera or press release shy; and B) it isn't very often a State forks over 65M to a private entity (headquartered out of state) with such scarce mention by that entity about the State's gratuity.**

I know Gulati was quoted, and details for use need to be ironed out, but just seems like something is a little odd.

Also, I think there's 10m of private funds going into the deal. I'd assume that is USSF money, but haven't heard. My understanding is that when tax money is use in situations like these, the private entity who contributes their own skin, jumps up and down telling everyone about it.

*In contrast, content is readily available on sportingkc.com.

**I also thought it was odd that nobody from USSF was present during the announcement yesterday.

 

I think not having a US Soccer representative was odd as well. But, whatever, this is very awesome and exciting.

 

Is SKC planning to use this as their primary training facility in the future, as well? Or will that remain at Swope Park?

 

So true. I'll drink to that.

Related thought: facilities aside, part of me thinks Gulati and Co. could maybe learn, managerially-speaking (of course), from the Cerner Boys. Thus, they may want to come to Wyandotte themselves and do some training too.

Hope I don't sound like an arrogant prick for saying that, but I said it anyway. I think crazier things have been said on bigsoccer before.

 

Original report said the deal with US Soccer was still being finalized, Robb said later it was actually done. Maybe finished too last min?

Still Swope, pretty sure they have agreement with KCMO still

 

Seattle should worry about getting a grass field first and NE has a whole bunch of other things to worry about before they worry about a national training center (unless, of course, said center helped them get a decent stadium situation)

 

yeah, that was kinda my thinking...Kraft couldn't pass on others helping to pay his way...

 

Thought so, but it makes me wonder exactly what all will be going on at the new facilities most of the time, when the USMNT is not training there and no international tournament is underway.

 

Article in the star said that USSF be relocating some of its personnel who deal with refs, camps, etc from Chicago to KC and I believe that Peter mentioned that he and Robb will be flying out to meet with JK to get his input.

So it seems like there USSF will play a pretty big role.

 

I wonder how the coaching course / development piece will pan out, given the NSCAA and USSF have competing licensing programs (although the NSCAA does accept USSF licenses as prerequisites, not so much the other direction). Could get interesting seeing them work out of the same building on the same fields competing for the same candidates.

 

Given Brownback's political struggles with the budget shortfalls due to tax cuts, I'll be very interested in whether this becomes a political football and in seeing how many of the phases are completed. Maybe STAR bonds technically are self-paying, so it won't be an issue, but the political knives are out. Maybe Robb should hedge his bet with a Victory Suite night for Paul Davis.

 

My thoughts exactly when I read that. It's only been very recently that the USSF stopped taking NSCAA credentials. They really don't need to have a pissing contest since they operate in very different ways. USSF is rigid "you do this when we say with no questions asked" while the NSCAA is more "here's a thought you should try and while you're at it, here is a reason that it may or may not be successful." I'm kind of a NSCAA person myself. The USSF is how to coach the way they want while the NSCAA is more about the philosophy of the game and coaching. END TANGENT

I also wonder if this is the field complex Sporting was supposed to have built as in agreement with WyCo years ago. Though I read something recently from RH indicating the futsal courts were the new plan instead. But now if this complex gets built, it comes almost exclusively on the backs of the taxpayers and like mentioned above, a portion from USSF. Awesome. I wish people would give me millions of dollars. I guess that's what happens when OnGoal gives Brownback tens of thousands of dollars and Sporting KC proper did as well. Yes, that's on public record so don't get huffy when I call them out on it.

As of right now, there are no plans (at least nothing public) for adding to Swope. They haven't finished what is currently there. Parking should probably come first anyway.

 

Hey @vividox and @KCFutbol , is there any chance of another webcam in our future for this?

I wasted hours of my life last time, I wanna do it again! Thx

 

I've read in multiple places that the futsal courts are the replacement for the fields which were originally agreed to. I can see some merit to this as futsal courts would be more useful in an urban environment than soccer fields and putting soccer fields over at Village West is not terribly ideal for the population distribution of Wyandotte/KCK. That said, I still would like to see more info about how Sporting Club has fulfilled their obligation in this regard.

It doesn't really come on the backs of taxpayers as it simply redirects the taxes generated by the project to pay off the bonds. The state/city/county are not on the hook for the debt. This is all based off what I've been able to find on the subject, at least - I very well could be wrong but I've tried very hard to figure it out and this is what I've come up with.

While I do think that greenfield tax incentives like these are a bit sketchy, STAR/TIF is, in my opinion, not a bad vehicle for public assistance with projects which would never occur if not for the public assistance. There's no loss there, just a lack of a gain. That said, the state/city/county do reap the benefits of whatever income taxes are generated (which may not apply in KS's case, I guess) but also the economic activity of the employees of such projects.

Economic analysis of this project says it will have a pretty good return... now, economic impact analysis is wide ranging in its methodology and ultimately has huge swings of positive/negative benefit based on what assumptions are made, so any economic impact analysis like this should be taken with a grain of salt... but generally it is constrained to direct impacts from the project and doesn't include ancillary ones (described above) nearly as much.

I tend to think that this particular part of the project (it is actually being attached to a larger 'Village East' project) will be a net benefit overall. This isn't like some other projects which are marginal tourist attractions... there will be lots of people coming to KCK who would not have been coming here otherwise if not for this complex. There will also be quite a few people being employed by this complex and those jobs aren't being poached from down the road.

Some links to some of the information I've found:
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansasci...pers-create-village-east-295m-star-bonds.html

 

Do you really want the USSF to be like the rest of FIFA though?

 

So, it has been a while since the big announcement of the National Training and Coaching Development Center in KCK. Has anyone seen or heard anything on this story since? Is the project moving forward or is there a hold up?