Atlanta Soccer Team Looks at Marietta Training Site

Atlanta’s soon-to-be Major League Soccer franchise is looking for a site to build a training academy, and Marietta is in the running.

The team wants 50 acres of open land in the metro Atlanta area to build facilities for its youth team and its first team, as well as 15 soccer fields to benefit the local community. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that some 90 acres of land along Franklin Road are prime for redevelopment after Marietta’s government bought up dilapidated apartment complexes and razed them to jump start the area economy.

Any construction on a facility should be done by December of 2016, in advance of the MLS team’s first season in 2017, the AJC reports.