In January 2025, just 14 months from now, San Diego Football Club’s inaugural batch of professional soccer players will report to training camp at a first-of-its-kind, $150 million facility that doesn’t exist yet.
With the deadline fast approaching, the newly formed organization is Thursday hosting a ceremonial groundbreaking event at the 28-acre project site on the northwestern portion of the Sycuan Reservation east of El Cajon.
The project, spearheaded by developer Zephyr Partners, involves converting a former hotel into a dormitory for the club’s residential, invitation-only youth academy, Right to Dream, as well as erecting a new 50,000 square-foot, two-story performance center.
Construction crews have been moving dirt for a couple of weeks. But the celebratory affair, which is being attended by Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and team executives, formally ushers in the franchise’s next chapter as an entity that must, without delay, focus its attention on building something of tangible significance.
“The groundbreaking is a historic moment for sports in the U.S.,” said San Diego FC Chairman Mohamed Mansour, who co-owns the club alongside the Sycuan tribe. “San Diego FC is the first major sports organization in America to be tly owned by a Native American tribe and now we are the first major club to build a training facility and Right to Dream academy on Native American land. Singing Hills is hallowed ground, and we hope that what we build here will do it justice and create a lasting legacy.”
San Diego FC, which officially became Major League Soccer’s 30th franchise in mid-May, is scheduled to begin playing in February 2025 at Snapdragon Stadium. The organization has made quick work planting roots, crafting a brand and growing a fan base. The club currently has a staff of 40 people who work out of a newly leased Little Italy office building, and is expected to grow its headcount to 200 people, not including players, said CEO Tom Penn.
In October, San Diego FC executed a long-term lease agreement with the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation for a 28-acre site within the existing Pine Glen Golf Course at the Singing Hills Golf Resort.
The site’s future training complex, designed by Gensler, includes the all-new performance center with separate training spaces for professional players and academy , state-of-the-art technology and a shared dining room. The two-story building faces two outdoor agility areas, five full-size training fields and one half-size, goalie-specific training field.
The team is also remodeling 75,000 square feet of existing space, remaking the recently shuttered Singing Hills Hotel building into a dormitory with capacity for more than 100 resident student-athletes, as well as staff living on campus. Other existing lodge buildings will be turned into school classrooms and office space for team and academy personnel.
From a construction perspective, the project represents a formidable undertaking, said Zephyr CEO Brad Termini, who is also a founding partner of San Diego FC.
“It’s going to take a lot of people — owners, contractors, subcontractors, labor — all working in unison to achieve a really ambitious goal and deliver a world-class facility on time for the club and the academy to operate,” Termini said. “It’s the most difficult challenge that (Zephyr has) ever undertaken. We’re building something that’s completely unique, meaning there’s no replica, and we’re doing it on an extremely accelerated basis and that creates challenges.”
The project site itself — on the Sycuan reservation, bordered by Dehesa Road to the north and Willow Glen Drive to the west — is said to be the facility’s standout feature.
The old and new structures, and even the facility’s layout, were designed to amplify the picturesque valley, nearby hills and adjacent olive grove, at the direction of the tribe, said Cody Martinez, who is chairman of Sycuan and vice chairman of San Diego FC.
“The top pro clubs, you’ll see the same stuff (at their training facilities); the best stuff to get the best out of the athletes from a human performance perspective,” said Tom Vernon, a founding club partner and the CEO of the Right to Dream organization. “The differentiating factor, where I would argue this would be the best in the world, is the location. … It’s just an inspirational place to learn and develop.”
The campus, where phenoms will eat at the same tables as novices, is being heralded by executives as unique for a number of factors, including its mix of the disparate age groups. The team is also the first Major League Soccer club to establish a dedicated academy for girls.
“Every MLS team has an academy where they’re developing, their way, the best kids from their market,” Penn said. “What’s unique about ours is we’re fully residential and we operate a school. So the curriculum our kids have is a mix of education, football training and character development.”
Academy operator Right to Dream is already scouting for talent.
The organization initially expects to recruit around 20 youth soccer players, ages 12 to 18, from around San Diego County, Mexico and the rest of the nation, depending on their age. The student-athletes will move into the Sycuan facility in the fall of 2025. The merit-only program operates similar to a boarding school, with three, 12-week school — except that all students attend free of charge. The scholarships are valued at around $65,000 per year with travel expenses to and from campus during break periods also covered.
The idea is to find the most talented young players, those with the ability to play in the best leagues later in life, but who may otherwise find themselves excluded by youth, pay-to-play soccer clubs, said Vernon, whose organization already operates academies in Ghana, Denmark and Egypt.
And, in addition to receiving the best training and the education, the kids are intentionally being given unprecedented access to their soccer heroes, he said.
“What’s unique about San Diego is this is the only place where will have the residential academy and the pro team together,” Vernon said. “This team will have some of the biggest current stars in world football playing for it and it will definitely have the future stars of American football … and they’ll be hanging out with our 10-year-olds. And then we just create an entirely different culture. And (for) some players, this is going to be absolutely not for them — because they want to be treated like superstars.”
And, even if the setup means the the organization misses out on a few big names, the team’s long-term goal is to use the in-construction training facility to produce the best talent in the league and put San Diego on the map for elite soccer.
