Louisville’s Metro Council approved a new public-private partnership with Soccer Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Louisville City FC, Thursday night.
The approval will pave the way for Soccer Holdings to privately fund a new multi-million dollar practice facility updating a portion of Champions Park on River Road.
“This new development is the next phase of our plans to build a wholistic soccer club for our men’s and women’s teams,” Soccer Holdings President Brad Estes said. “We are delighted to be able to revive this previously useful property into a new training facility with fields that can be used for many local events.”
The new soccer complex passed the Metro Council’s Parks and Sustainability Committee last week and was presented to the full council tonight. The development includes six-field practice complex at the park along River Road and Edith Road which would help Soccer Holdings provide proper practice fields for its USL Championship club Louisville City FC, the new NWSL franchise, and Louisville City’s U23 and other teams.
“We spent a lot of time speaking with the local sports community. During those talks, we heard time and again that there was a need for more quality sports fields. The feeling was that if we could provide a facility it would increase local participation,” Soccer Holdings’ Executive Vice President of Development James O’Connor said. “It’s another great example of everyone working together to better our community. We certainly need these new practice fields for our senior teams, but we also envision them being used as part of larger events for our city as well.”
Under the terms of the new plan, Louisville City would lease the land from the city and build a state-of-the-art soccer facility through private funds. The Champions Park site would feature three natural grass practice fields with buildings for locker rooms and staff offices. Four turf fields would be able to be used year-round.
