Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht remembers attending matches at the former SAS Soccer Park nearly 20 years ago. “It was rare to see it full,” says the city’s mayor since 2007. Now, he sometimes has a hard time finding a good seat for North Carolina Courage women’s soccer games at the facility, now sponsored by the WakeMed hospital system.
With the bigger crowds and surging interest in the sport, Cary sees opportunity. It’s looking to leverage its status as a destination for soccer events to boost economic development. Steve Malik, the majority owner of the Courage and North Carolina FC, would like to expand the stadium by 40%, and the mayor dreams of a mixed-use development around the 10,000-seat Sahlen’s Stadium and 150-acre complex, which has hosted NCAA and ACC championships, World Cup training camps, as well as international friendlies. The ACC plans to host its women’s and men’s conference tournaments there for the next five years.
It also is the home of The Soccer Tournament, which in June brought in $15 million in economic impact, compared with less than $2 million in 2023. It will be back next summer.
“I think the town of Cary is a national treasure in terms of hosting soccer,” Malik says.
Still, Cary has a ways to go to become the state’s undisputed soccer capital. The city may have more soccer events than anyone else, but Charlotte and owner David Tepper have the state’s Major League Soccer franchise. The Charlotte FC averaged 35,544 fans per match last year, trailing only the Atlanta FC among 29 MLS teams.
Average attendance for North Carolina FC, a United Soccer League men’s team based in Cary, was 2,389 in 2023, up 25% from the previous year, and the Courage averaged 5,384, up 18.5%.
Soccer sells well elsewhere, too. An exhibition match between England’s Wrexham and Chelesa clubs drew more than 50,000 to UNC Chapel Hill’s football stadium in 2023, sparking an economic impact of $15 million. The Manchester City vs. Celtic match in late July was expected to report similar results.
Meanwhile, youth soccer tournaments are big attractions across other regions. The 2024 Fusion Cup, held in May in several Triad region venues, attracted 413 teams, up from 281 in 2023. It had $4.5 million in economic impact, filling nearly 2,000 hotel rooms.
Other parts of the state have additional professional teams in various sports. But soccer, from youth to high school to college and professional, is the main game in Cary. The Soccer Tournament, which brought global teams such as Wrexham, Borussia Dortmund, West Ham, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, is patterned after The Basketball Tournament, with the winning male and female teams each receiving $1 million. In June, the tournament attracted more than 42,000 fans to Cary for 118 games,
two dozen or so games broadcast live on ESPN+.
Organizers selected WakeMed Soccer Park because of its high-quality natural grass fields, says founder Jon Mugar, who wanted an East Coast location that would be an easy travel location for European teams and fans. “There are not too many facilities that have these fields,” he says.
Cary employs seven nationally certified sports field managers. The turf consists of two varieties of hybrid Bermuda grass, called Tif-Tuf and Tifway 419. Tournament sponsors included Coca-Cola, Adidas, Chevrolet and Verizon.
Brendon Mendelson, the marketing manager for soccer goal manufacturer Kwik Goal, sponsored its own team this year after being the official goal of the 2023 event. The Quakertown, Pennsylvania-based company paid the $40,000 entry fee and recruited players globally, including former U.S. men’s national team players Jimmy Conrad and DeMarcus Beasley. Placing managers and staff in the area for a week cost thousands
more, with an expectation of boosting soccer goals sales, which average between 6,000 and 7,000 a year.
Cary’s soccer park opened in 2002, with the stadium seating 7,000. It was paid for with $14.5 million in Wake County hotel room and food and beverage taxes. WakeMed took over the sponsorship rights in 2008, paying $300,000 a year. A $6.3 million expansion in 2012 added 3,000 seats, luxury suites and locker rooms. Additional fields around the complex are used by youth and high school soccer clubs. The park also hosts cross country, lacrosse
and other sports. Fifty-one of the 88 events held in 2023 were soccer-related, creating an economic impact of $6.8 million last year, according to Cary officials.
Malik says the main stadium needs at least 4,000 more seats for the Courage to keep up with other arenas in the 14-team National Women’s Soccer League, which has average attendance topping 10,000. Last year, Cary replaced some seats and upgraded the locker rooms, and revamped the stadium’s
air conditioning.
“A lot of new stadiums are popping up, and they would all like to host championships,” says Malik. “Every team from a facilities perspective has upgraded so much. We definitely need more seating, and we definitely need more premium” suites. An expansion could be funded by the same county taxes and a town bond issue, says Mayor Weinbrecht.
Malik lauds Cary officials for building an eight-minute walkway between WakeMed Soccer Park and Fenton, a $1 billion mixed-used development with ample parking and more than a dozen bars and restaurants. He recently added investors to North Carolina FC, including Damian Mills, CEO of Mills Automotive Group, which owns car dealerships in several states.
Last year, Cary lost out to Fayette County south of Atlanta as the main training location for the Chicago-based U.S. Soccer Federation. Its training facility is now in Carson, California. Georgia benefited from partial funding from billionaire Arthur Blank, the Home Depot co-founder who owns the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and the MLS’s Atlanta United.
“One thing we didn’t have was huge philanthropy,” says Shelley Curran, Cary Assistant Town Manager. “ What we had was a stadium and a town that was going to maintain it and put a dome over one of the fields.” More shaded areas are in the site’s future, she adds.
Weinbrecht believes a planned expansion of Trinity Road near the Cary park will spur adjacent development opportunities. Professional sports stadiums such as Truist Park in north Atlanta are increasingly surrounded by amusement parks, retail and restaurants, he says. In nearby Raleigh, plans call for a mixed-use district around PNC Arena, home of the Carolina Hurricanes, to include entertainment, retail, a music venue, apartments,
offices and a hotel. The capital city has the area’s largest soccer complex, the eastside WRAL Soccer Park that has 22 soccer fields, a clubhouse and a fitness center.
122-acre WRAL Soccer Park has 22 soccer fields including eight full-sized turf fields, a clubhouse, and an indoor fitness center.
Cary’s plans require “a big investment and a big commitment,” says Weinbrecht. “The potential is there to do something great. I would love to see soccer continue to grow in Cary, and I’m sure it will.” ■