Soccer

Youth soccer organizers in Bloomington-Normal are hoping a new multisport complex will solve their facility needs when they lose their current home, but they aren't counting on it.

The whole country will be watching Sunday when the U.S. women face Netherlands in the World Cup final. That includes 11-year-olds Lana Esparza, Natalie Bierbaum, and Kylie Stanton, all teammates on the Illinois Fire Juniors U12 soccer team in Bloomington.

The Normal West head soccer coach says his teams’ recent trip to Jamaica will prepare his players not just for next season—but for the rest of their lives.

A newly merged youth soccer organization in Bloomington, the Illinois Fire Juniors, is announcing a $2.25 million fundraising campaign for new, upgraded soccer fields that will be needed when a three-year lease runs out for Community Fields along Ireland Grove Road.

The Prairie Cities Soccer League and the Illinois Fire Juniors have a new lease on community fields near the airport in Bloomington-Normal.

A potential multi-sports complex on Bloomington-Normal's west side could top $50 million in public-private investment.

In an interview  for GLT's Sound Ideas, Katie Kim of the Kim Group, a developer working with landowner Dave Stark on a multi-use sports complex in Bloomington-Normal, said she continues to meet with stakeholders.

By the end of the year, 21 soccer fields on airport-owned land along Ireland Grove Road will be off limits due to FAA regulations and so the debate is ramping up about whether to seize the opportunity and go big, as in a multi-sport complex in one location, or to update existing fields and green space at schools and parks to fill the void.