Charlotte MLS plans to build community soccer fields

Dustin Swinehart stood surveying the newly unveiled turf athletic field in a neighborhood on the outskirts of East Charlotte. Even though Swinehart, a former professional soccer player, prefers a grass field (he said most players do), his eyes were bright eyes with the promise of what Charlotte’s Major League Soccer team could do there and in the surrounding community.

“They have a Boys & Girls Club here,” Swinehart said. “So one of the questions we have is, ‘how can we help the Boys & Girls Club?’ Maybe we run some programming here and form a partnership with them.”

Last month, Swinehart was named the Director of Community Engagement for Charlotte’s MLS expansion team, which is set to begin play in 2021. Wednesday, he attended the opening of a multisport youth field funded by NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick and the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation in partnership with the Salvation Army.

Swinehart was a guest of the Salvation Army and said he has already met with the organization’s leaders to discuss potential partnerships. In addition to working with established community groups, Swinehart named after-school soccer and reading initiatives, as well as building smaller fields in under-served neighborhoods, as short-term goals for the team’s community engagement efforts.

“We want to be a great support for the city broadly,” Swinehart said. “So you think about programs like the Salvation Army and a field going in, and those are the programs that really matter that we want to be connected to.”

The community initiatives have a “21” theme, inspired by the team’s inaugural season. One of those initiatives, for example, includes partnering with 21 Title I elementary schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County for after-school soccer and literacy programs.

Swinehart said the team is still in the process of selecting those schools, but it is working closely with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to do so. He said Charlotte MLS wants to expand on the efforts of established after-school programs, such as those launched by the Creative Player Foundation and the Soccer Foundation of Charlotte.

“We’re looking mainly in the CMS school district and saying if we’re gonna pick 21 elementary schools to go to, what would they be?” Swinehart said. “Our hope is to have that launched at the start of the school year.”

In addition to identifying schools, Swinehart is also working with his team to assess neighborhoods and apartment complexes to install small soccer fields. The fields will be roughly the size of a basketball court and will adapt to fit those communities’ needs. He said the goal is to provide resources, such as a field and coach, in under-served areas where organized soccer is not easily accessible.

“We’re looking at neighborhoods that would really value a soccer field going in,” Swinehart said. “What neighborhoods would you see a lot of kids engage with a soccer coach that’s there.”

The goal is to choose locations over the next three months and have the fields installed this summer, Swinehart said. The project is tentatively labeled “21 Pitches.”

Charlotte MLS will also seek to partner with local YMCAs, community leaders and neighborhood associations to help bring such plans to fruition.

“The whole thing is special,” Swinehart said. “If I were to give a general message out to the community of Charlotte broadly, it’s that there’s something special coming together in all this. It’s more than just a team. It’s the synergies in the city. It’s the momentum of people behind it.”

His eyes once again glanced outward.

“And that momentum helps a field like this be maximized. Like, what if we had kids just steaming everywhere, running and playing? It’s kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Sports reporter Alex Andrejev covers NASCAR and MLS for The Charlotte Observer.