Atlanta’s third transit-connected soccer field should debut within weeks

Efforts to create a full league of public soccer pitches connected to Atlanta mass transit—unlike anything else in the world, no less—have scored again.

The third location of a Soccer in the Streets field next to MARTA’s rail network is under construction in East Point, a city of 33,000 southwest of downtown, near the airport.

Officials expect the pitch—called a StationSoccer location—to debut in early May, following a groundbreaking ceremony April 11. It’ll occupy a lot at 2848 East Main Street, in the city’s downtown district, across the street from the East Point MARTA Station and just up the road from Woodward Academy and College Park.

The StationSoccer installations aim to make The Beautiful Game accessible to all Atlantans and bring communities together.

The first location debuted at downtown Atlanta’s Five Points MARTA Station in 2016, heralded by program officials as the world’s first soccer facility in a transit station. That was followed in September by fields at West End’s MARTA station.

Curbed Atlanta

East Point’s field will neighbor a pizza restaurant, positioned between buildings owned by local businesspeople who offered up land in collaboration with city officials, the Atlanta United Foundation, and the Transformation Alliance.

East Point Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham called the project “a milestone moment” that’s bound to “bring vibrant activity to our downtown,” according to a recent statement.

An official ribbon-cutting date is expected to be announced for East Point soon.

Additional locations are in the works for what Sanjay Patel, Soccer in the Streets director of strategic projects, has described as a “League of Stations.”