U.S. Soccer to Build Training Center in Atlanta; Backed by Falcons' Arthur Blank

The U.S. Soccer Federation has plans to build a national training center in Atlanta backed by Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).

"This national training center will accelerate the growth of soccer in this country and will represent a commitment to developing elite soccer players for decades to come," USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement.

Blank is contributing $50 million to the project and the site for the training center will be selected in January.

The new training center will become the federation's new headquarters and bring much of its operations under one roof.

U.S. Soccer has been based in Chicago since the 1990s. However, the federation's national teams have held training camps all across the country based on where they have games scheduled.

For example, when the men's national team has games scheduled in the Caribbean and Central America, players train in Florida.

The Atlanta facility will have fields, office space, a recovery center and much more as players will have "uninterrupted access to elite infrastructure for training, development, recovery and performance analysis," according to U.S. Soccer.

The training center will also host "youth tournaments, soccer community conferences and will be a gathering place for the broader soccer ecosystem," according to the federation.

In addition to the USMNT and USWNT, the facility will house a total of 27 of the federation's national programs, including youth teams, nine extended national teams, two futsal teams, two beach soccer teams, two cerebral palsy teams, two deaf teams, and one co-ed power soccer team.

"America's top athletes deserve the best when it comes to preparing them for competition on the global stage and I'm thrilled U.S. Soccer has chosen metro Atlanta as its new home," Blank said in a statement.

"Atlanta's incredible passion for soccer, corporate community and unmatched infrastructure make this a natural home for the national training center and I'm very confident our community will help America's finest soccer players compete on a global level like never before."

A centralized training center had long been desirable for the federation as many countries around the world have state-of-the-art facilities for their players. USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter had even advocated for a facility in the past, saying a facility would be "beneficial ... not only for consistency of the senior team, but also to have all the other teams."

While there doesn't appear to be a timeline for the finishing of the project, once the training facility is complete, it will signal the beginning of a new era for American soccer.