Could NC be a soccer state? US Soccer eyeing Cary for headquarters prompts question

A few months ago, throngs of fans gathered in uptown Charlotte to watch the United States men’s national team’s first match in the 2022 World Cup, flinging beer in the air, shouting chants — expressing out loud what many had felt for years: “This is a soccer city.”

Could North Carolina be a soccer state?

The Town of Cary confirmed Wednesday to The News & Observer that the town is among at least two locations being considered to host the U.S. Soccer Federation’s headquarters and premiere training facility. The association, currently headquartered in Chicago, has been considering different sites to build its new headquarters, including in Atlanta and Cary.

In an email, a spokesperson for USA Soccer said that the organization is in the beginning stages of considering a National Training Center, “but we are not discussing any specifics on locations at this point.”

North Carolina has a rich tradition in athletics. The football and basketball talent that has emerged from here lives in lore. It’s even home to NASCAR’s headquarters in Charlotte.

Soccer’s rise in the state — particularly in the Triangle — has been an investment decades in the making, too.

Cary is home to USL League One team North Carolina FC and the multi-time champion of the NWSL, the NC Courage. WakeMed Soccer Park regularly hosts some of the U.S. soccer’s biggest events, including the NCAA Final Four, and, particularly on the women’s side, the park isn’t far from some of the best young talent the country offers.

The UNC-Chapel Hill women’s soccer program has won 21 national championships since 1982 — the dawn of the Division I NCAA-sanctioned sport — and one more title as a charter member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1981.

Beyond Cary, other parts of North Carolina have proven to be a fertile ground for soccer growth. Dan Courtemanche, the executive vice president for communications of Major League Soccer, told The Charlotte Observer that part of the rise of MLS over the last decade has been thanks to its expansion in the Southeast. Two of the most recent additions to MLS attract the most fans: Atlanta (which held its inaugural season in 2017) compelled 47,116 fans on average every home game in 2022; Charlotte (which is embarking on its second season in 2023) averaged 35,260.

It’s difficult to discern how the arrival of USA Soccer’s premiere training center, if it does arrive, would impact the sports scene in Cary. But what’s easy to discern? Organizations finding their way to North Carolina has become a pattern.

The USGA broke ground on Golf House Pinehurst this past summer. USA Baseball completed construction of its USA Baseball National Training Complex, located just by Thomas Brooks Park in Cary, in 2007.

The Cary Town Council approved a $13 million expansion of that complex in December 2021. In that announcement, executive director of USA Baseball Paul Seiler said that “this community has just become synonymous with the highest level of baseball.”

It might soon be synonymous with much more.