Privately funded training facility seen as a way to put Boston Legacy in position to compete for top NWSL talent
BROCKTON — While the spotlight has been on the ongoing construction of Boston Legacy FC’s future competition home at White Stadium, the club has been quietly working on a training facility here, set to open by the end of the year.
The privately funded complex — which will feature a 30,000-square-foot training building and two full-size pitches — will put the Legacy in position to compete for top talent as teams across the NWSL have begun throwing resources behind the creation of similar training grounds.
“It’s absolutely essential at this point” for NWSL teams to have dedicated training facilities, said Legacy head of facilities Matt Balk during a media walkthrough of the site on Monday.
“Players have the option to sign anywhere, and you want to go where you feel that you’re being taken care of. Having a dedicated facility definitely helps contribute to that.”
The effort is part of a larger push across women’s pro sports in North America to prioritize purpose-built training facilities. The Kansas City Current set the pace in 2022, opening the first purpose-built training center for a women’s professional sports team in the United States.
Since 2024, at least nine women’s professional sports teams across the WNBA and NWSL have opened or announced plans for their own training facilities. Angel City, Bay FC, and the Denver Summit are among the Legacy’s NWSL peers in that category.
Balk also worked with the Golden State Valkyries on building their 32,000-square-foot training complex, the fourth dedicated performance center in the WNBA.
“Ultimately, it’s about making sure that you’re listening to the players,” Balk said. “It’s really easy to fall into that trap of building a performance center just like every other performance center, but players have individual needs.”
The Legacy currently train at the Revolution’s facility in Foxborough, so Balk and his team are aiming to get them into their permanent home by the end of this year.
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The first phase of the complex, which will cost approximately $60 million, will include two full fields — one natural grass and one artificial turf, both of which will be equipped with lighting to support flexible training schedules — and one natural grass half-field.
The training building, set to open in November or December, will include space for strength and conditioning equipment, sports science technology, recovery rooms, a player lounge, and a fully equipped kitchen. The second floor of the building will house the club’s offices.
The club is targeting January for the opening of the artificial turf field, which will be housed in a bubble to enable year-round training.
“Building a world-class club requires world-class infrastructure,” Legacy controlling owner Jennifer Epstein said in a release. “This performance center reflects our commitment to creating an elite environment for our athletes and investing in the resources they need to compete at the highest level and reach their full potential.”
The first phase of the project will use 15 of parcel’s 24 acres, and the second will involve developing the remaining land.
The club plans to make part of the complex, including the turf field housed in the bubble, open to community use. Though initial plans for the project included six training fields, the club is still in the planning and design stage. There will be additional fields available for public use, Balk said, but he doesn’t yet know how many.
“We’re working to ensure that we have programming that is available to the community,” he said. “We really wanted to make sure that we had what we’re doing in Phase 1 available to the team for next season, and that’s our focus.”
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