Mobile County’s newest sports venue is getting a new operator. AFC Mobile, the city’s National Premier Soccer League club, has agreed to take over management of the Mobile County Soccer Complex, with the club expected to assume full day-to-day control of the facility in November.
The Mobile County Commission voted last week to have the county step in on a temporary basis to run the complex until the handoff to AFC Mobile is complete. The change comes after Mobile United, the youth soccer program that had volunteered to manage the facility since it opened, made what commissioners described as an organizational decision to step back from that role.
County Commissioner Connie Hudson, who has championed the soccer complex project for years, said the transition should be smooth and that the county’s relationship with Mobile United remains intact despite the shift.
“We’re still on very good terms, and Mobile United still uses and reserves the fields and we very much consider them a partner in terms of having an input on how things are operating at the facility,” Hudson said. “It’s only the day-to-day management that’s passing to AFC, and I cannot think of a better replacement.”
AFC Mobile was founded in 2015 and competes in the National Premier Soccer League, a USASA Elite Amateur League that serves as a proving ground for players hoping to advance to higher levels of the sport. Club officials said taking on the county complex fits squarely within their long-term goals for growing soccer in the area.
“Since our inception, our number one priority has been growing the game in Mobile. This complex is another crucial step in making that happen,” AFC Mobile Communications Director Mitchell Kahalley said. “We’re committed to making the complex an affordable home for the whole Mobile soccer community. We look forward to working with the county to recruit regional and national tournaments and bring new and creative programming to the facility to ensure it is highly utilized and valuable to everyone in Mobile County.”
The county officially opened the complex, located off Halls Mill Road near the Interstate 10 and Interstate 65 corridor, this past July, capping years of political and financial groundwork largely driven by Hudson’s office. The first phase of construction cost roughly $4 million and delivered three lighted fields, two of which include seating, along with a fourth unlit practice field.
County officials have said the project is designed to be built out in phases as funding becomes available, rather than all at once. The next planned phase is already moving forward, and the long-term vision calls for as many as 10 fields on the site, including a stadium and championship pitch that could be used to draw larger regional and national tournaments across multiple sports. A previous funding request tied to the federal RESTORE Act, which channels penalty money from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill toward Gulf Coast recovery projects, estimated the cost of those later phases at around $17.8 million, though county leaders caution that figure could shift depending on how public and private funding comes together.
Alongside the management change, county commissioners also approved the creation of a seven-member Mobile County Soccer Complex advisory committee. The unpaid board is intended to give players, coaches, referees and spectators a direct line to the commission on how the facility is run, though it will not have authority over daily operations.
“That’s good input for us to have because we want to hear how we can continue to make the experience better and improve this facility,” Hudson said. “The committee wouldn’t have any authority over the operation of the complex, but it would be able to bring ideas, suggestions or issues up to the commission. We want to keep the lines of communications wide open for the soccer community.”
Commissioners have not yet appointed anyone to the new committee. As with other county boards, nominees will be put forward by the three county commissioners and must be approved by a majority vote. Hudson said Mobile Sports Authority Director Danny Corte will hold one of the seven seats by virtue of his position with the county.
Since opening, usage of the complex has been somewhat limited by the COVID-19 pandemic and by a temporary closure needed to reseed some of the grass fields. Even so, Hudson said the venue is already booked for practices through November, and some weekend slots remain open for tournaments and other competitions in the meantime.
“We’re excited to see where things go for the soccer complex,” Hudson said, adding that county officials plan to keep building out amenities and programming as the facility matures.