By Trevor Stynes
ATLANTA, July 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Soccer believes a new state-of-the-art training centre and finally having a permanent home can put it on equal footing with football's powerhouse nations in the years ahead, as they look to the future following an early end to their World Cup adventure.
Excitement and enthusiasm turned to familiar disappointment for U.S. fans as the team topped their group and reached the round of 16 only to exit the tournament in a 4-1 defeat by Belgium.
The U.S. Soccer
National Training Center in Fayetteville, outside Atlanta, opened in May in time for World Cup preparations, relocating their headquarters and almost 400 employees from Chicago.
"This is the first time U.S. soccer has ever owned a blade of grass," the centre's general manager Tom Norton told Reuters.
"It's an opportunity for us to bring all of our operation under one roof together so we can push our game to the next level."
The centre is the latest stage of its namesake Arthur Blank's quest to turn Atlanta into the country's soccer capital.
The owner of the NFL's Falcons, Blank poured $50 million into the project and was also the engine behind the city's MLS franchise Atlanta United and is bringing an NWSL team to the region in 2028.
The centre features 17 outdoor playing surfaces, including 13 regulation-size grass pitches, along with a full-size artificial turf indoor pitch, the Nike High Performance Gym, and dining and nutrition areas.
All 27 U.S. national teams will be catered for at the 200-acre facility, but there are plans to involve others.
"We're not going to limit what we're working with here," Norton said.
"We're going to make sure that the rest of the soccer world can be welcomed here and grow the game together. The doors are open to the entire soccer community."
GAME TIME
U.S. under-20 women's head coach Vicky Jepson said the sprawling campus was one of the best in the world, and "miles better" than St. George's Park where teams in her native England train together.
"This is our fortress, this is our home, and it's incredible that we've got this," said Jepson, whose team played out a 1-1 draw with England in the first match to be played on the centre's dedicated event pitch.
Men's soccer has always struggled for attention in a crowded U.S. sports market, but hosting the World Cup will hopefully leave a legacy of more than just good memories, U.S. Soccer's chief operating officer Dan Helfrich told Reuters.
"The World Cup leaves behind aspiration and ambition for the sport in our country," he said.
"The fact that the men's team trained here, that the community got to experience the men's team being here before they went off to the West Coast to play, all of that has a huge impact.
"We certainly believe that there are six, eight, and 10-year-olds whose desire to either start in the sport or continue in the sport or set their heights higher for their own career, has changed fundamentally."
Following the U.S. team's World Cup exit, much of the debate has centred around those children, and how so many are priced out of the game by the pay-to-play model.
Unless that changes, the new centre may still miss out on a deep well of undiscovered talent.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, additional reporting by Jayla Whitfield-Anderson and Amy Tennery; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
