The Midland Soccer Club is close to reaching its $10 million fundraising goal to make an indoor sports complex a reality.
The group has officially raised $7.3 million with additional fundraising deals in the works behind the scenes, Pete Corle, board member and capital campaign chair, told supporters at a Thursday evening fundraising event at downtown Midland’s The H Hotel.
He estimates the group is “within months” of reaching the total amount, he told the Daily News, with a target of being “under roof” in the facility by the winter of 2027-28.
The project initially had a goal of breaking ground in 2025, but that date was pushed back. In addition to fundraising time, Corle expects the design-build process to take six months, followed by construction taking nine months.
The planned 150,000-square-foot facility, to be built near the east end of the Midland Soccer Club property, will serve as the home for the club’s Fusion Women semiprofessional team, but will also welcome other sports including football, lacrosse, baseball and softball.
“(For) anyone within an hour-plus zone, this will be the largest facility of its kind,” Corle said. “This is for the Great Lakes Bay Region. It is intended to be for the benefit of all the communities, not just soccer.”
The total cost will end up being a little more than $10 million, and the facility will be comparable to the Legacy Center sports complex in Brighton, he said.
“There’s other ways that it can be designed to have a less permanent structure, but as we looked at it, between the economics as well as the safety, we really want to make sure that the structure was able to stand for years to come, and that anyone that’s in the building is always in a very safe condition,” Corle said.
Access to an indoor training facility will be hugely beneficial for the soccer club, said Grace Sczepanski of the Fusion Women’s team.
“Being able to train consistently, even during the winter, is something that will help a lot of players develop,” Sczepanski said. “Before, we had used the Auburn Dome or Northwood, and that would be really inconvenient and pretty expensive, so having a space of our own (will make) things a lot easier and more accessible for everyone.”
Fusion Families honorary chairs Phil and Jessica Rausch gave the event’s keynote speech, with Jessica Rausch telling the Daily News that the couple’s support for the project came from their children’s experiences playing the sport.
“We’ve got two young soccer players, so, it’s a game that we all love. It’s a game that we’ve loved watching them grow as athletes, as teammates,” Rausch said. “It’s such an anchor organization in the community.”