U.S. Soccer cuts ribbon on new Georgia headquarters and training facility

Caption

The U.S. Soccer Training Center

Credit: U.S. Soccer

Georgia is now the headquarters for U.S. Soccer. On Thursday leaders and athletes gathered for a ribbon cutting at the national training facility in Fayetteville, Ga.  

The Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center will be the home for Team USA development including the men, women, youth, and extended programs. 

The 200-acre facility includes 13 grass soccer fields, two turf fields, two sand fields, and several options for indoor play. 

Speakers included U.S Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone, CEO JT Batson, U.S Women’s head coach Emma Hayes, and Philanthropist Arthur Blank. 

Blank said he supported this project because he’s seen the impact soccer has on youth.  

Caption

Arthur Blank poses for a picture with Reece Rollins, a young soccer player in the Georgia Olympic Development Program, at the new U.S. Soccer Training Center on May 7, 2026.

Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News

“It’s not just a facility,” Blank said. “The facility is a facility but it's the hearts and the minds and the spirits of the young folks. And younger being going on in age a little bit, being processed and having an opportunity to live their dreams.” 

Parlow Cone played on the U.S. Women’s team from 1996 to 2004. She said they never interacted with other U.S. national teams, but the new facility will bring the soccer community together. 

“We are working day in and day out to make it our home,” Cone said. “So that the women's national team players, they see the youth national team player, they the men's national players and they interact and they're learning from each other. That 6-year-old who's picking up a ball for the first time has a place here.” 

The former headquarters in Chicago didn’t have a home training facility for athletes. Blank said he wanted to correct that.

“For a sporting team, to have an office and not a home is like having a house with no kitchen or going out to eat and never finding a Chick-fil-A in your life,” he said. “I mean, how can that be?” 

This is the latest in a series of major soccer developments in the Atlanta metro area. The city will host eight World Cup matches and it was recently awarded the next National Women’s Soccer League expansion team. 

Batson was moved to tears at the ribbon-cutting. His first competitive soccer match was in Georgia with the Augusta Arsenal Soccer Club. Batson said he couldn’t be more excited. 

“The support of all the great organizations and all the great people here in Atlanta has been inspirational for someone who grew up here in Georgia,” he said. “And as someone who grew up playing not far from here, I never would have dreamed of anything like this."

U.S Soccer staff will move in May 18. The men’s national team will start training in Fayetteville this month ahead of their first World Cup match on June 14 in Los Angeles.