The facade of the new United States Soccer Federation National Training Center and headquarters will feature glass and stone, according to a rendering provided Friday.
The first-of-its-kind center will be constructed in Fayette County with an estimated cost of $200 million, $50 million of which will be covered by a pledge from Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank.
Groundbreaking on the center, which will be the home of the USSF’s 27 teams, is scheduled for Monday. USSF hopes it will be completed before the 2026 World Cup, which will include eight matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The site, comprising more than 200 acres, is located to the west of Veterans Parkway and north of Trilith Studios.
Preliminary plans for the site will include as many 12 fields, a field for beach soccer, an indoor field, more than 100,000 square feet of indoor courts, and the training center/headquarters, which will cover more than 200,000 square feet. Gensler has been hired to design the center.
The center is expected to be a hub to improve playing, coaching and refereeing through advances in technology, analysis and infrastructure.
“I think it’s really important,” U.S. women’s national team player Emily Sonnett, a Marietta resident, said Tuesday, of the center. “I think you’re seeing that obviously in Europe, not only in the professional teams, but also their federations. So I think it’s a next step to growth. And it’s obviously very, very important for our development.”
The U.S. Soccer Federation was founded in 1913. It moved from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Chicago in 1991. It opened a national training center in 2003 in Carson, California, for $130 million. It included a stadium now the home of the L.A. Galaxy, four grass fields and a turf field. A national development center opened in Kansas City in 2018. It is more than 50 acres, buildings consisting of 81,000 square feet, and five fields. It cost $75 million to build.
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