KC's new $60m, 190-acre soccer village, USSF's National Training and Coaching Development Center

Nice to see this thing finally be confirmed.

 

It looks lovely. But will we really be holding two games and two camps there annually?

(I assume that includes all the national teams, not just the senior men.)

 

Because any city with an NFL team and MLS team doesn't already have first class training facilities available to camp at?

 

Why not? Carson hosts a lot of things currently.

 

Why Kansas City, which does not have climate suitable for good soccer year round?

 

Maybe they will integrate some of that Qatari field cooling equipment that should be coming in the next year or two.

 

Are you aware of other communities/ownership groups ready to make a deal like this?

 

1) Design calls for a state of the art indoor complex that includes a practice field, if the climate is not suitable for the coach's purpose that day.

2) Sometimes harsh climate is an advantage - wasn't that an argument why the US team might have one edge over their Euro counterparts in the last WC?

I had to laugh when the Euro's complained about 87 degree weather in Brazil. Last year there were pro soccer games played in KC from below 20 degrees to 100+ degree weather.

3) Geographic center of the US means <3.5 hrs direct flight time to/from any part of the Lower 48. And the airport is only 15 mins from the facility.

4) Plans call for an attached hotel/living facility on site. If a coach wants to keep his team totally in a bubble, he can. It's in the middle of nowhere, no distractions, no siren call of a "glamor city" nearby. You come to this place for serious soccer business only.

 

Right before kickoff of skc vs man city they mentioned big news about a fancy new national training center and they prominently displayed the US Soccer crest next to the facts/features. I figured it might be worth a thread. Go ahead and do the insult thing now or whatever because I'm an incompetent user.

 

Good stuff.

 

Excellent stuff. the focus will be on coaching and refereeing. i think that is outstanding.

 

outstanding.

 

Not sure climate is the issue.

All good points. I also think part of what is driving this is KC recognizes they are a small-market team that will not throw LA or NY type money at big name players. So they are going to counter by developing their own. KC has a stated ambition - from the very top on down - to become a club that develops elite (meaning truly world-class) soccer players. Now they are putting their money behind their ambition.

This could be a pretty big deal.

 

Great for US Soccer.

 

Details:
Sporting Club plans to build national soccer training center in KCK
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mls/sporting-kc/article791676.html

Sporting Group’s latest vision further cements KC’s soccer-capital status
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/vahe-gregorian/article791688.html

Video (YouTube):

 

They'll probably sign some big name players when at some point MLS teams are allowed to pump full transfer fees back into their squad, rather than only 600K or whatever ridiculous amount it is.

As far as the training center, I love SKC's ambition. Most important aspect as always will be who is coaching. Have to, have to, get some great coaches in there to work with the kids after investing so much in the facility. One future complication will be how they keep the talent they develop under the strict MLS salary structure. Making DP's out of Zusi/Besler already means they're probably going to lose either Benny or Dwyer, maybe others too. But when they start developing multiple good players, how are they going to keep them? HG's only allow so much flexibility.

 

"Sign big name players" and "Sporting Kansas City" are two terms that are like oil and water to each other. I don't think SKC will be offering and the big names certainly aren't taking Kansas City, which is completely the latters' loss imo.

 

Wow. Seriously impressed by SKC's management team.

 

Carson has the advantage of "year-rounded-ness," however. I know this new KC location has an indoor facility, but I'd nevertheless imagine that January camp and the accompanying game is still going to be in Carson (or perhaps FL at times in the future).

 

It's going to come down to exactly what tech and other goodies they put in the KC facility. And if it's anything like Sporting Park - winner of 170 worldwide awards according to the KC Star article - the KC facility will blow everything else away when it is completed.

I've toured Sporting Park and had the COO tell me about and show me many of it's details. It's borderline insane to what lengths the SKC owners will go to make things "the best" (and I'm not saying this as a SKC fan, in my non soccer related job I've interfaced with hundreds of business operations large and small over the decades).

OnGoal toured dozens of soccer stadiums around the world and basically copied the best from each while adding a few things of their own. I'm sure they will do the same for the training facility.

The SKC ownership group has a side consultancy business called Sporting Innovations that is in the business of showing how technology can enhance the fan and player experience. Sporting Innovations claims a hundred clients, including 10 of the top 30 sports organizations in the world (by market worth, including NFL teams).

As a recent example, Sporting Innovations just signed the PAC 12 and part of the Big 12 as clients (with 3 SEC football programs knocking on their doors) per the Wall Street Journal article below.

Why College Football is Studying Major League Soccer
http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-...gue-soccer-1405556573?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks

The SKC guys not only have the ambition to take over the soccer world, they have convinced other huge traditional sports organizations of other sports to pay money to Sporting for SKC's existing knowledge and know-how.

It floors me that a US built/MLS organization is leading the sports world in this way....

 

Yeah, Carson does have year roundness. Which is why I expect camps in winter time, like the January full national team camp, will continue to be as Carson.

But there are plenty of camps that aren't in the dead of winter. For example, the StubHub Center in Carson this month hosted a four team U20 tournament with the US, Chile, Australia and Bermuda.

With the U15, U17, U20 and recently created Olympic eligible U21 teams, the full national team, as well women's national teams, there are plenty of teams that could make use of such a facility, and plenty of months of the year where it would be practical to do so. Having two annual camps seems very doable.

 

Count me in ...