2010 US Youth Soccer National Championships To Be Held In KC

From the KC Star comes this announcement – The United States Youth Soccer Association is planning to hold its national youth soccer championships in Kansas City’s biggest suburb from July 20-25 2010. An official announcement about the tourney is expected next month.

The national championships are the culmination in a series of events known as the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship Series in which more than 10,000 teams compete.

The national championship, which will draw 60 teams and 1,000 players from across the country, will be played at the new complex nearing completion at the corner of 135th Street and Switzer Road in south Overland Park. The city has scheduled a celebration to open the facility Aug. 29.

“The vision of the city in building this complex was to host the top events in the country,” Alan Blinzler, president of the Kansas State Youth Soccer Association, said in a prepared statement.

“The awarding of the 2010 U.S .Youth Soccer National Championships — the first ever such event in Kansas — speaks to that vision and the quality of the new complex,” Blinzler said

Overland Park has planned the 12-field soccer park since 2007. The city decided to build the complex in the aftermath of Johnson County’s failed attempt in 2006 to get voters to raise property taxes for 24 youth fields next to a stadium for the Kansas City Wizards.

Ultimately, plans for soccer fields and the Wizards stadium died in the Kansas suburbs and are now planned for redevelopment of the old Bannister Mall site across the state line.

Overland Park’s soccer complex is being paid for from an increase in its hotel tax — raised two years ago to 9 percent from 6 percent — and from user fees.