OL Reign will make Starfire Sports in Tukwila its training facility home beginning in February 2023, the club announced Thursday.
The multi-year deal allows the team to return its original training and match site during the NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013. Initially, the Reign will share portions of the facility currently designated for the Sounders FC and have space for their own locker rooms and OL Reign Academy.
The Sounders announced in February plans to convert grounds in southwest Renton where the Longacres Racetrack once stood and most recently was Boeing’s commercial airplanes headquarters, into a training facility that will include four fields and office space for the entire organization. When it opens in January 2024, the Reign will take over the Starfire footprint, including office spaces.
Starfire is a non-profit organization that uses its 54-acre soccer facility for inclusive youth soccer and STEM education programs in addition to use for adult leagues and events. There are also two indoor fields, eateries, and stadium-like setting where the 2014 NWSL championship and many U.S. Open Cup matches were held.
“It’s a huge step forward for us,” Reign CEO Vincent Berthillot said. “We solved the stadium situation last year and now being able to really make a huge improvement to the training conditions is a great achievement.”
Earlier this month, the Reign completed their inaugural regular season with Lumen Field as their home turf. The Bold, who won the NWSL Shield, will host the Kansas City Current in the league semifinals on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Lumen.
But the Reign train in Tacoma at Bellarmine Prep and utilize parts of Foss High as locker rooms, weight room and meeting space. The schools are approximately one mile apart and the players either shuttle or carpool between the sites.
OL Groupe, the club’s France-based majority owners since 2019, upgraded a Bellarmine practice field, including laying grass and installing an irrigation/drainage system. Yet, the closest restrooms are portable toilets.
Establishing infrastructure befitting of world-class athletes is a longstanding player demand the league is now obligated to rectify under the current collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in January and signed in April by NWSL Players Association executive director Meghann Burke and league commissioner Jessica Berman.
Starfire meets the training requirements. Official NWSL matches must be held at facilities with a minimum capacity of 10,000 seats and cannot be baseball fields.
The Reign played its 2019-2021 seasons at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. The Bold played and trained from 2014-2019 at Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center. The club was first told in 2017 the facility in its current condition is not compliant.
The return to Starfire means the Reign will have to relocate the provided player housing from Tacoma to the Tukwila area. Berthillot confirmed the club is seeking options.