San Diego’s MLS team — San Diego FC — debuts in March 2025, but the club is already firmly planting local roots by building a $150 million training campus on the Sycuan Reservation in El Cajon.
On Nov. 9, 2023, San Diego FC broke ground on the 125,000-sqft campus that will rise on a 28-acre site spanning part of Pine Glen Golf Course and the Singing Hills Hotel. It’ll feature five full-sized soccer fields and other open-air training areas, plus a 50,000-sqft sports performance facility.
The project will also include a Right to Dream residential youth development academy, the first of its kind in the US. The organization — one of the team’s ownership partners — is dedicated to training, educating, and empowering youth players.
The academy will help male students ages 12-18, who will live in the hotel’s renovated buildings. The club said the first group of residential athletes will be enrolled in fall 2025.
San Diego FC will also create a non-residential pathway for female athletes at the academy — the first MLS club to develop emerging female soccer talent.
San Diego MLS CEO Tom Penn said the development is the team’s “foundation to achieve our vision to become the epicenter of football excellence and innovation in North America.”
Vice-Chairman, San Diego FC and Sycuan Tribal Chairman Cody Martinez said the groundbreaking “lays the foundation to nurture the dreams of young talent, fostering a stronger community, and creating a legacy of soccer excellence.”
MLS Commissioner Don Garber said the San Diego facility will be among the most innovative soccer development facilities in the world.
“For boys and girls in the San Diego area, it will serve as an inspiration to everyone who dreams of playing for their local MLS or NWSL team, or even representing the U.S. on the world stage,” Garber added.
