The Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer (MLS) announced today a partnership with Pizzuti Solutions to pursue development of a new team training center and soccer complex.
Preliminary conceptual plans, drafted for the Crew by Columbus architect Acock Associates, include team training facilities, a full-size indoor field and 16 outdoor fields which would help alleviate a growing need across the soccer spectrum in central Ohio, while also serving as a regional and national beacon. A sports medicine and physiotherapy clinic and retail development are among the other elements also under consideration.
Crew General Manager Mark McCullers said the success of similar soccer facilities including Pizza Hut Park in suburban Dallas, and one under development in suburban Denver, helped spark the Crew's interest in creating a world-class soccer training facility in central Ohio.
"A Crew training facility with a full-size indoor field as the centerpiece of a world-class soccer complex would meet the needs of the Columbus Crew for many years to come," McCullers said. "At the same time, the complex would provide much-needed soccer infrastructure for thousands of local residents who participate in youth and amateur soccer."
Pizzuti Solutions LLC, a division of The Pizzuti Companies, will assist in assessing the team's current training facility in Obetz and establishing a strategy for the design and development of the soccer training complex. Pizzuti also will negotiate agreements on the Crew's behalf for the development of the training facility, and will manage the design, construction and project oversight as the club's owners' representative. The MLS team will continue to play its matches at the existing Crew Stadium near the Ohio Expositions Center and I-71.
"We're pleased to partner with the Columbus Crew in the development of a superior training complex," said Joel S. Pizzuti, president and COO of The Pizzuti Companies. "This project will further reinforce the Crew's reputation as a model MLS franchise and provide the Crew and central Ohio with a soccer experience that is second-to-none."
McCullers said the Crew's long-standing relationship with Pizzuti was an important factor in establishing this new partnership.
"Several members of the Pizzuti Solutions team were very involved in the development of our current training facility in Obetz, which was the first of its kind in Major League Soccer when it opened almost 10 years ago in August of 1997," he said. "We look forward to working together once again to create one of the finest soccer facilities in the country."
The Crew and Pizzuti Solutions will be working together over the next several months to solidify the conceptual elements of the training facility. A refined plan will be included in a 'request for qualifications' that will be shared with Obetz and other central Ohio communities that may be interested in hosting the facility. According to Shannon Hamons, Pizzuti Solutions' director of special projects, the completion of the new training facility will be an important local economic development project.
"Wherever the improved facility is located, it will undoubtedly serve as a major focal point for increased community excitement," Hamons said. "The facility will provide significant year-round opportunities for increased recreation, sports-related tourism, and associated retail and support services."
