RSL-AZ SOUTHERN ARIZONA SOCCER CLUB
PO Box 31181 Tucson, AZ 85751
PRESS RELEASE – 8/11/2018
Major League Soccer Is Here In The Southern Arizona Soccer Community!
The 44-year old Fort Lowell Soccer Club and founding member of Pima County Junior Soccer League, which sponsors Southern Arizona’s largest soccer tournament, The Tucson Association of Realtors Fort Lowell Shootout, is partnering with Real Salt Lake Arizona. The largest youth soccer club in Arizona, with over 30% of the registered players in the state. The new club will be known as RSL AZ SOUTHERN ARIZONA, and has executed a 5 year agreement with Real Salt Lake Arizona.
Benefits to Soccer Players & Parents
This partnership will result in making soccer more affordable for parents by reducing the registration fees for kids to play, resulting in more boys and girls being able to play soccer in future years.
Real Salt Lake will be providing an online soccer curriculum available to coaches and soccer families, encompassing a new way to teach both fundamentals and advanced game techniques. Online access will allow players and parents to watch professional men’s and woman’s soccer games throughout the United States.
All coaching curriculum and coaching education will be paid for by Real Salt Lake. Statistics show that better coaching education leads to a better soccer-playing experience, which leads to kids staying in the game longer and/or becoming lifelong fans.
Players with advanced skills and abilities will have a direct pathway to playing in Academies, Junior professional USL (United Soccer League), and Senior professional teams in MLS (Major League Soccer) and NWSL(National Women’s Soccer League); the top professional divisions in the United States and Canada.
Economic Benefits to Our Community
Every year the Fort Lowell Shootout brings in over 350 teams, both nationally and internationally, to the Tucson area. Resulting in approximately 3.5 million dollars spent on the local economy. Our new agreement with RSL AZ will immediately bring in over 100 new teams, resulting in additional economic benefits. The new partnership will bring the tournament into the top 25 soccer tournaments in the West.
For the past 28 years, Fort Lowell Soccer Club has invested revenue from the tournament back into developing soccer fields and lighting systems around the city at Townsend Middle School, Doolen Middle School, and Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet School. The increased revenue from the tournament will result in more fields being developed and at more rapid pace.
The club, tournament, and sponsors are helping put on the only US Youth Soccer TOPSoccer program in Tucson and surrounding areas. TOPSoccer is the outreach program for soccer. It is a community-based training and team placement program for young athletes with disabilities, organized by youth soccer association volunteers.
Long-Term Plans and Economic Benefits
An added benefit of this partnership will be Real Salt Lake’s long-term plan is to build a multimillion-dollar training facility in Tucson. The facility will benefit the local community, youth soccer, youth tournaments, and provide a better training pathway to Major League Soccer (MLS).
The training facility will also have the additional advantage of becoming an off-season training camp for teams throughout the MLS, thus benefitting further the local Tucson economy.
Contact: Fred Bennett FBennett@rslaz.org (520) 229 – 7509