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Photo by Taylor Bright
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Photo by Taylor Bright
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Photo by Taylor Bright
Walls in the facility feature photos of Legions players.
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Photo by Taylor Bright
A Legion branded soccer ball sits next to Legion t-shirt.
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Photo by Taylor Bright
Legion merchandise is on display in the facility.
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Photo by Taylor Bright
The practice facility features locker cubbies for Legion players.
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Photo by Taylor Bright
Exterior of the practice facility.
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Photo by Taylor Bright
Exterior of the practice facility.
Birmingham Legion FC officially opened its $3 milion practice facility Thursday on Dunnavant Valley Road.
The construction of the facility had been years in the making as the team waited to find land next to their current practice fields to build a facility, said Jay Heaps, general manager of the Legion.
The facility will put Birmingham Legion FC at the top of the United Soccer League (USL), the league in which the Legion play, in quality of facilities, Heaps said.
“This is a top two or three facility for just first-team training and the partnership with UAB Medicine - having our physical therapy involved - probably puts us as the the No. 1 facility in USL.”
UAB Medicine has an on-site physical therapy center that is open to the public as well as serving the Legion.
Heaps will be using the new facility to recruit players to the Legion and a brand-new facility where the players will be spending most of their time.
“This is going to be a great recruitment tool for players,” Heaps said. “This is where the players are coming in, eating breakfast, having lunch, training, doing their peak performance physical work and then also recovery. So this becomes five or six hours a day where the players are living.”
Heaps said the site was attractive, primarily because it would be nearly impossible to find the room elsewhere for six practice fields, which the Legion enjoy now. Those six fields were originally created for the 1996 Olympics soccer competition which was held in Birmingham at Legion Field. While the practice facility is in Shelby County, the Legion’s main offices will remain in Birmingham.
All told, Heaps said the Legion’s investment in the facility was $3 million with all of the project funded privately. But, he said, the teams would add value to the site. One possibility, he said, is the team would invite international teams to practice there.
“The World Cup is coming, so potentially, this could be a host site for international teams kind of like it was in ‘96,” Heaps said.
The Legion had been using the facility, but work was still being done on the grounds. On Thursday they welcomed the community.
Heaps said the facility shows the commitment of the team to the community.
“Three or four of our players have homes in the Chelsea area and Shelby County area,” he said. “And so for me, it’s exciting that, you know, we’ve been doing it as a team, but this actually is a stamp of saying we’re here for the long haul.”
And that community he hopes continues to grow along U.S. 280 as the team settles into their Shelby County home.
“We want our fan base to grow, he said. “It’s a great collaboration with Shelby County, but it shows that we, as the Birmingham Legion, needed to have a home base here as well. Because I think we have a lot of fans that come from Chelsea, a lot of soccer-playing fans out here in this area, and great soccer roots out here. So we wanted to make sure we tied into that as well.”
