FIELD OF THE YEAR PROFESSIONAL SOCCER
SportsField Management ( SFM ): You won the 2022 SFMA Field of the Year Award in the Schools and Parks Soccer category for Sportsplex Stadium Field , and you now take home the win in the Professional Soccer category . Besides the category of entry , what is different about this win ? Jonathan Waszak : It was a much busier year , but it was an awesome year . We got to experience professional soccer again . When the Sportsplex opened , we were home to the Charlotte Independence in the USL , but being part of MLS Next was an exciting opportunity for us , and we are very glad that Crown Legacy Football Club chose us as their home facility
SFM : You hosted 17 Crown Legacy FC home games . What do the day-to-day operations look like when handling a professional soccer schedule ? Waszak : Crown Legacy FC utilized one of our other natural grass fields here at the Sportsplex for training purposes , and it was one to two games per week at Sportsplex Stadium Field . We had a couple weeks off when they were on the road , but we filled that with two U . S . Open Cup dates and some other events as well . We painted once per week , and we set up once per week . It was a normal schedule and we stayed on top of our cultural practices . Crown Legacy FC worked really well with us on scheduling to allow us to have some breaks for transition purposes or any sod projects we had . For example , we had to replace some creases after a lacrosse event .
SFM : Please tell us about hosting other events at Sportsplex Stadium Field while the Crown Legacy FC season is going on . Waszak : We hosted a couple college soccer tournaments , some lacrosse events , the two U . S . Open Cup events , the Mexican National Team trained here for a couple weeks , and we had other events in between . The two U . S . Open Cup games for Charlotte
14 SportsField Management | January 2024 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com