Groundbreaking for USSF complex is set for Monday

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 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 of the center Tuesday. “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 that now is the home of the LA Galaxy, four grass fields and a turf field. A national development center opened in Kansas City in 2018. It covers more than 50 acres, with buildings totaling 81,000 square feet, and five fields. It cost $75 million to build.

SheBelieves ticket sales: Atlanta is on the verge of setting another soccer ticket-sales record.

The USSF announced Friday morning that tickets sales for today’s SheBelieves Cup event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium were at 48,500. The record for ticket sales and distributed for a friendly involving the U.S. women’s national team is 49,504, set Aug. 29, 2019, for a match against Portugal in Philadelphia.

The U.S. will host Japan at 12:30 p.m. today, followed by Canada playing Brazil at 3:30 p.m. in the semifinals of the SheBelieves Cup. The winners will play for the title Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.

“I think anytime you can play in front of a large crowd, that’s really exciting,” U.S. women’s interim manager Twila Kilgore said Friday. “We want to play for our fans, we feed off their energy; it’s an amazing experience to be in a stadium in the form of support that’s behind you. But also to do that in what will be the future home of U.S. Soccer is really special. This is a community that we want to embrace, we want to be involved in. It’s going to be a joint effort to make this the center of U.S. Soccer. And we’re just really excited about everything.”

Atlanta United has led MLS in attendance each of the past seven seasons and is on top again this season, with an average of 50,961 tickets sold and distributed. The club also holds attendance records for U.S. Open Cup final (35,709), MLS All-Star game (72,317) and MLS Cup (73,019).