Soccer Complex Groundbreaking Postponed
UPDATE (2/25/22 - 10:00 AM) - The groundbreaking scheduled for Friday, February 25th is being postponed until the following week due to waterlogged conditions at the site after this week's rains. The event will be held Thursday, March 3rd at 3:30 PM.
The Dalton area is a hot spot for championship soccer with three of Georgia’s reigning high school state championship programs calling the area home. Later this month, the City of Dalton will break ground on a new soccer complex worthy of those champions.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Heritage Point Soccer Complex will be held Friday, February 25th at 3:30 pm. (UPDATE: This event is now scheduled for Thursday, March 3rd at 3:30 PM) The ceremony will be held at Park Creek Elementary School at 1500 Hale Bowen Drive which is adjacent to the site of the new soccer complex.
The new complex is being built between the campuses of Park Creek Elementary School and the Dalton Middle School/Dalton Junior High School/Dalton Academy campus complex. It will feature two FIFA-regulation sized fields which can be divided into four fields for youth play. Until recently, there were no FIFA-regulation fields in the city, but a third is also being completed by Dalton Public Schools at the Heritage Point campus complex. The three fields will be used cooperatively by the school system and Dalton Parks and Recreation. A fourth FIFA-sized soccer field is being built by Whitfield County at the new Riverbend Park.
“For soccer it just means the appropriate ages are going to be able to play on the appropriately sized field,” said new Parks and Recreation director Caitlin Sharpe. “And it opens up the opportunity for us to have a spring individual soccer program and then a fall individual soccer program, it gives us more space to have more soccer for those who aren’t part of a team… it’s an exciting time for the rec department.”
“We hope to continue to support generations of first-class soccer players who will have the opportunity to play in youth sports but also to even have a chance to potentially get a scholarship because they had the first class amenities to be able to practice on and play on through the youth programs,” said city administrator Andrew Parker, who also noted that Dalton Parks and Recreation also maintains a number of other youth sized turf fields which will also be renovated soon. “We’ve got the infrastructure in place to support Dalton continuing to be Soccertown, USA as we move forward over the next few years.”
The Heritage Point Soccer Complex is one of the projects being paid for by the 2020 SPLOST. The City of Dalton has contracted with Northwest Georgia Paving for the ground clearing work as well as the site contract work. Advanced Sports Group is the turf contractor for the project. The overall budget for the two contracts is approximately $5.2 million.
Ground clearing work has recently been completed by the contractor. Once ground is broken on the project and construction begins, city officials hope the project will be completed later this summer and for the fields to be available for play in late summer or fall.
