Chicago Stars Plans Facility North of City
The NWSL’s Chicago Stars FC plans to build its first club-owned training facility on a 10-acre site in the northern suburb of Bannockburn, Ill., a key step under the ownership of Laura Ricketts to bring the franchise’s infrastructure up to league standards.
Construction of the project, which will involve the conversion of an existing commercial building on the property, is expected to begin this spring and be completed by the end of 2027. The Stars are searching for a naming-rights sponsor for the facility.
Stars FC President Karen Leetzow declined to disclose the project’s cost, saying it remains “in flux,” but similar projects typically carry eight-figure price tags. The club tapped architecture firm Populous to design the facility and the Ricketts family’s real estate firm Marquee Development as its development partner.
Rancho Cordova Approves $940K Toward Indoor Soccer Arena
Rancho Cordova’s city council approved $940,000 in development fee waivers for an indoor soccer arena project Monday evening.
The project is an ambitious proposal to build a $175 million indoor soccer arena in less than two years, in time to host games in late 2027. Major Arena Soccer League, an indoor circuit with two teams in Southern California, awarded the Sacramento region one men’s team and one women’s team in September.
Joshua Wood and Charanjeet Kaur Tiwana-Purewal founded KozPure Development, which will serve as the “Downtown Dova” project’s developer, and Alpha One Sports and Entertainment Group, the property owner, in 2024 and 2023, respectively.
The development would be KozPure’s first major project. They pitched the arena as part of a larger, eventual development that may cost around $1 billion, and would include retail, restaurants, 640 units of housing, parking, a card room, and two hotels with at least 800 rooms altogether.
New Jazz-Themed Court Installed at SLC Rec Center
It appeared that nothing could erase the pure exuberance from the few dozen children as they ran out onto the new Utah Jazz-themed basketball court at the Northwest Recreation Center to secure a ball.
Soon after, the rambunctious bunch — clad in purple shirts — eagerly dribbled around the court before taking in some instructions during a Junior Jazz hoops clinic. It was a fun way to break in the new surface at the recreation center in Salt Lake City's Fairpark neighborhood.
This is now the 26th "community court" that the Utah Jazz have sponsored across northern Utah, but the first of eight renovations planned through an initiative partnership with Delta Air Lines to refurbish eight courts over the next seven years, said Chris Barney, president of revenue and commercial strategy at Smith Entertainment Group.
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