Orlando City SC on Friday will announce a partnership with the Lake Nona community "on a new 23-acre training facility expected to open" in '17, according to a front-page piece by Tenorio & Shanklin of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. Orlando City Founder & President Phil Rawlins said that the club "is investing" upward of $20M in the new facilities. The training center will house Orlando City, USL club Orlando City B and the club's U.S. Soccer Development Academy teams "in the fast-emerging southeast Orange County community." The facilities are expected to be completed by March '17. As planned, the soccer campus "will include six practice fields, training and fitness centers, a players' clubhouse, locker rooms and a rehab and injury center." The building will also "include film rooms and classrooms for Orlando City players and academy players." The club also "holds an option to acquire 20-plus acres directly in front of the new facilities to expand in the future." The Tavistock Group, which owns Lake Nona, "will develop the privately funded campus." The complex will be "built next to the 100-plus-court national training center" being built for the USTA. Helping "foster the relationship, Tavistock purchased 1,000 tickets when Orlando City launched its campaign to fill the Citrus Bowl's 60,000 seats for the team's debut game less than a year ago." Tavistock Senior Managing Dir Rasesh Thakkar said, "This came together because of a friendship that Phil and [team Chair & Majority Owner Flávio Augusto da Silva] and I have. I was so impressed with the way they do things as an organization" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 1/29).
TRAINING DAY: In Georgia, Kimeko McCoy noted the Marietta City Council on Wednesday "entered into a 20-year signed lease" with Arthur Blank’s expansion MLS club Atlanta United FC. Council member Philip Goldstein "took issue with what he called a 'poison pill,' -- a part of the lease that said should council not respect its end of the lease, Atlanta United can purchase the property for $10,000." Atlanta United "will build six lighted soccer fields" on the site. The city "purchased 49 acres on the site" for $24M and "leveled the complexes, paving the way to build the soccer complex, which will also serve as headquarters for players and staff." Planning for construction on the training complex is "expected to begin immediately, with completion estimated" by early '17. The club's HQ building is "expected to be 28,300 square feet" (MARIETTA DAILY JOURNAL, 1/28).
