The Arthur M. Blank National Training Center officially opened in early May on a 200-acre site south of Atlanta, giving U.S. Soccer a permanent home. The facility, which is hosting the U.S. men’s national team as it prepares for the FIFA World Cup, includes 17 outdoor playing surfaces, 20 locker rooms, 19 meeting rooms, two indoor courts and a 10,000-square-foot gym within more than 400,000 square feet of space and hundreds of staff.
Then-sporting director Matt Crocker told ESPN the center is “best in the world, in my opinion,” and that it will serve national teams as well as coach education, refereeing and community uses. Crocker left the federation in April, but ESPN reported he and others outlined ambitions for the NTC to become “the home of soccer in America.”
Before the NTC opened, U.S. Soccer relied on rented facilities for national team preparation and maintained a small space in Southern California developed with the LA Galaxy that is primarily for the MLS club. The federation’s former headquarters was in Chicago, and there is a separate development center in Kansas City built at Sporting Kansas City’s training grounds. U.S. Soccer said it expects more than 350 employees on site daily.
Officials cited Atlanta’s direct flight options, East Coast location and year-round weather when selecting the site. U.S. Soccer said the project moved forward with a $50 million donation from owner Arthur Blank, contributions from corporate sponsors including Coca-Cola, and land donated by Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy; ground was broken in 2024. NTC general manager Tom Norton described the facility as “a huge, huge space,” saying the center is “just under 400,000 square feet under roof.”
Norton noted the center can host multiple teams at once, with 20 locker rooms and the capacity to run programs “almost every day.” Crocker emphasized a player-first approach aimed at supporting all 27 national teams and creating opportunities for local organizations and players, including top-level preparations for stars such as Christian Pulisic at the World Cup, according to ESPN.
