Orlando City SC announced Friday they will partner with the Lake Nona community in Orlando to built a new 23-acre training facility that is expected to open in 2017.
The facility will be home to Orlando City’s first team, their USL side Orlando City B and the club’s U.S. Soccer Development Academy teams. The teams’ current facility in Seminole County will become home to the National Women’s Soccer League’s Orlando Pride starting in 2017.
Construction on the Lake Nona site is expected to start immediately.
“This development in Lake Nona is another great example of the Club’s expanding footprint, and the resulting economic benefit, throughout Central Florida,” said Orlando City co-owner and president Phil Rawlins in a team statement. “It complements the construction of our new home in downtown Orlando, and provides our MLS and USL teams with a great training facility also featuring a host of synergistic amenities in Lake Nona. We are thankful for this partnership with Tavistock and Lake Nona, who have been longtime supporters of Orlando City and the sport of soccer, and we look forward to a successful, championship future together."
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The soccer campus will include six practice fields, training and fitness centers, a players' clubhouse, locker rooms and a rehab and injury center. It will also include film rooms and classrooms for Orlando City players and academy players.
Orlando City also holds an option to acquire 20-plus acres directly in front of the new facilities to expand in the future. The Tavistock Group, which owns Lake Nona, a 7,000-acre planned community with the Orlando city limits, will develop the complex.
