Peter Vermes stood at midfield of Sporting Kansas City’s stadium along with U.S. Soccer chief executive Dan Flynn, a half-dozen other USSF officials, and Sporting’s ownership group. Up on the stadium’s big screen flashed the designs for a world-class training facility, then the logos of Sporting Kansas City and U.S. Soccer while dramatic music played in the background. “Let the dream begin,” read the screen.



That was in 2012. Six years later, the Pinnacle Training Center opened its doors just a few miles from the stadium where that presentation was made. Pinnacle—funded primarily by $62 million in Kansas sales tax (STAR) bonds—is a huge, 81,000-square foot facility that includes a state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic run by the local Children’s Mercy hospital, five training fields, and technology aimed specifically at enhancing coaching, player, and referee education. The $75-million facility houses both Sporting Kansas City...