JAXUSL working with St. Johns County on proposed 15-field Community Sportsplex

[marcuscnelson]

After a presentation at yesterday's Board of County Commissioners meeting, JAXUSL announced today that they're working to bring a "Community Sportsplex" to County Road 16A in St. Johns County.

https://www.jaxusl.com/news/2023/07/19/jaxusl-working-with-st-johns-county-on-proposed-15-field-community-sportsplex-for-first-coast/



The site displayed in their renderings is located here, next to Shearwater. That development had previously proposed a smaller county park to the northeast.

This is also still separate from the proposed stadium, the location of which is still unknown.

[Charles Hunter]

Interesting, it will be adjacent to the First Coast Expressway (State Road 23) near the CR 16A Spur interchange. From the rendering of the proposed facility, and the FCE route map, it looks like the western half of the proposed sports facility is slated to be a large retention pond for the expressway. On the rendering, it looks like the parking lots are "in" the retention pond. The pond shown on the rendering appears to be much smaller that FDOT's pond.

First Coast Expressway map at sports complex - scroll 'left' to image #4
https://nflroads.com/FirstCoastExpressway/documents/FCE%20-%20PIM%202021-02-11.pdf

[pierre]

This probably solidifies that the team seems to be more aligned with St Johns county. And that's likely where any proposed stadium would be.

[Tacachale]

I enjoy going to watch sports, and I'm down with soccer, but I'm damn sure not going to be driving out to the exurbs to watch minor league soccer with any regularity.

[Zac T]

I enjoy going to watch sports, and I'm down with soccer, but I'm damn sure not going to be driving out to the exurbs to watch minor league soccer with any regularity.

If the Armada can get their act together and the new soccer stadium gets built in the Eastside then there's just no reason to. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I can't imagine very many Jax folks will want to drive to St Johns County to watch a soccer game considering almost all of our sports teams have been centrally based out of Downtown for so long.

[Adam White]

Seems like a prescription for failure.

[Tacachale]

Antonio Allagretti, who's part of this group, clarified on Twitter that this isn't where they hope the stadium to be. It would be a training facility and sports plex for the surrounding community.

[Adam White]

Antonio Allagretti, who's part of this group, clarified on Twitter that this isn't where they hope the stadium to be. It would be a training facility and sports plex for the surrounding community.

That's a relief. To be fair, the pics do look like a practice field.

[thelakelander]

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/dec/12/jaxusl-announces-soccer-clubs-official-name-sporting-club-jacksonville/

[pierre]

The colors are great. But the name is uninspiring.

[JaxJersey-licious]

^^^^True. If the team insists on going the European route in branding at least try one that hasn't been used by another American soccer club.

I suggest Jaxson Villa! 

[Charles Hunter]

Right. What is "Sporting Club Jacksonville"?
A hunting club?
Fishing?
Golf?

[fsquid]

This team is hitching their wagon with Florida Elite which is HQ at Veterans Park in north St. johns.  So no surprise on this.

[pierre]

This team is hitching their wagon with Florida Elite which is HQ at Veterans Park in north St. johns.  So no surprise on this.

No surprise. They have always appeared to be all in on SJC. Hopefully the Armada stadium and the MLS Pro move work out.