The National Training and Coaching Development Center took another momentous step toward completion on Thursday as the facility’s final steel beam was installed during the NTCDC Topping Off Ceremony.

Hundreds of Sporting Kansas City supporters signed the steel beam on April 9 at Children’s Mercy Park, leaving their mark on a foundational piece of the world-class NTCDC, which is slated to open this winter.

The NTCDC will become the new training home of Sporting Kansas City next season and will also accommodate the Children’s Mercy Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center and the U.S. Soccer National Coaching Education Center, effectively making Kansas City the hub for youth athlete sports medicine services and overall soccer development in the United States.

“Just as we changed Kansas City with Children’s Mercy Park, we will change our whole country with the effects of the NTCDC,” said David Ficklin, Vice President of Development at Sporting Kansas City, at the ceremony. “This may just be a building, but for us it’s absolutely the future of this sport, and it’s an incredible driver of economic development with tens of thousands of visitors here every year. Sporting Club, Sporting KC, Children’s Mercy and U.S. Soccer are absolutely overjoyed at seeing this dream become a reality.”

The 80,000-square-foot NTCDC building will be accompanied by five full-size soccer fields, capable of hosting youth, professional club and national teams from around the world as well as U.S. Soccer coaching courses, workshops and symposiums.

Click here to visit the NTCDC homepage on SportingKC.com.