On April 4, the Murfreesboro City Council approved a $14.5 million enhancement of the city’s Richard Siegel Soccer Complex as a part of a 20-year Cooperative Use Agreement with the Tennessee State Soccer Association.
The agreement came after TSSA voted in December to designate Murfreesboro as the site of its new facility. After construction, the new and improved Siegel complex will serve as the TSSA’s headquarters for regional tournament play and statewide operation.
The enhancements to the facility will be funded through debt financing in the FY2019–20 Capital Improvement Program. However, debt service for upgrades is planned to be offset by increased tourism revenue, according to Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland.
McFarland called the agreement a “win-win” in a recent interview with the Murfreesboro Pulse.
Among the enhancements to the complex are nine new synthetic turf fields that can be used after it rains, an indoor soccer training facility and increased seating at the Championship Field in addition to improved lighting and added restrooms for the Jordan Farm Practice Fields.
“The soccer fields stay closed four or five months out of the year because of weather,” McFarland said. “This will give us the ability to have a soccer complex open year round.”
The city will also retain revenue associated with the rental and usage of the facility and expects to see an additional 20,000 hotel room bookings per year due to future regional and national tournaments.
“We’ve hosted state cups,” McFarland said. “We’ve hosted lots of different tournaments that bring in significant economic impact. This will allow us to expand on that and to grow that.”
Photos courtesy Murfreesboro Soccer Club
McFarland said that the city expects 100 percent completion of the project by mid to late-2020.
Nashville was officially designated as a site for a future Major League Soccer franchise in December 2017, and McFarland played a part in that effort. The Murfreesboro mayor served on the 22-member Nashville MLS Organizing Committee, which pushed for MLS to come to Music City.
McFarland said that Murfreesboro’s new agreement will help to build on the soccer excitement and culture in Middle Tennessee.
“One of the reasons that the [Nashville MLS Organizing Committee] wanted Murfreesboro represented is that there is a large soccer community in Murfreesboro,” McFarland said. “With this model with TSSA, we’re gonna have one of the nicest facilities in the country. With the new MLS incoming, we have the ability to partner and do some exciting things with the facility.”
Murfreesboro’s Richard Siegel Soccer Complex is located at 515 Cherry Lane Dr.
