JEFFERSON CITY – United Capital City Soccer Club has announced plans for a new 21-acre multi-sport complex that is scheduled to open in the spring and will impact the local economy in Jefferson City.
Tom Chapman, executive director of the United Capital City Soccer Club, said the project has been a long time in the making and will continue to grow as mid-Missouri athletes and their families travel every weekend. He added that not only do they benefit from this, but they also benefit the local community.
“If we have something here in central Missouri that not only keeps our parents at home, but is an economic engine here in Jefferson City and Cole County, changing the landscape of what we can do in this town. You can.”
The facility currently hosts more than 450 athletes, he added, adding that all members of the club will be attending the same complex.
The complex will be built next to the Special Olympics Training for Life campus off Christie Drive and is expected to cost about $10.7 million.
Chapman said through a study with the Jefferson City Tourism and Convention Bureau, the complex is expected to bring in between $30 million and $50 million annually.
“We already have 40 events planned for 2025-2026, including soccer, baseball and softball.”
Chapman said the vision for the project is for it to be used almost every weekend, and thanks to the help of Turf Tank, a field painter robot, the military will be needed to convert the field from baseball to soccer. He added that there was no.
“If you thin the paint to the point where the lines stay for about three or four days, they disappear, and then you have to start over every week. It doesn’t matter, you can do softball lines, you can do soccer lines, You can do a football line, too. You can do whatever you want with it, so it’s very versatile.”
Chapman added that the complex will serve thousands of athletes and that he hopes to break ground on the project by December.
“That’s what makes it a little bit more unique than all the sports we’ve seen so far, and that’s the fact that we can play pretty much any sport we want to play right now.”