
ANGEL CITY FOOTBALL CLUB CELEBRATES THE OPENING OF NEW PERFORMANCE CENTER WITH RIBBON CUTTING AND TOUR
LOS ANGELES (January 21, 2024) — Today, Angel City Football Club (ACFC) held a ribbon cutting and tour in recognition of the official opening of the Angel City Performance Center, the largest dedicated training facility in the NWSL.
The ceremony included a press conference with ACFC Controlling Owner Willow Bay, ACFC Co-Founder & President Julie Uhrman, the club’s new Sporting Director Mark Parsons, President of Cal Lutheran Dr. John Nunes, ACFC Team Captain Ali Riley, and ACFC forward Christen Press, along with a tour of the entire performance center for VIPs and media.
With ACFC preparing to take the pitch for their first training of the 2025 preseason tomorrow, the opening of the new performance center signifies a great start to the season ahead.
Quotes from Ribbon Cutting & Tour of Performance Center:
Willow Bay, ACFC Controlling Owner
On the opening of the new performance center:
“We just have to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible tragedy that our city has faced over the past two weeks. As so many look to rebuild in the coming weeks and months ahead, it's important that you all know that Angel City will play a meaningful role in supporting our community, and we'll do that through our partner supported give back programs and of course our community outreach efforts.”
”We've already been working closely with the LA Fire Department Foundation, as well as LA Recreation and Parks and other outreach organizations. We are part of this community. We care deeply about this community, and we will be here for the long haul.”
“Today we get to celebrate an extraordinary milestone for Angel City. Our new performance center reflects our commitment to the future of ACFC to its sustained excellence, and to providing our players with the best possible environment to train, to recover, and to thrive. My husband Bob Iger and I know how important it is, and how essential it is to ensure that our players have everything they need to be successful both on and off the pitch. This state of the art performance center, let's be clear – it sets the bar, but it really should be the norm.”
“This is what female athletes should have everywhere they come to work, a place where they can reach their full potential. A space where they can achieve greatness. It was built with our players and our coaching staff at its heart and based on our reactions, their reactions during the first tour, I think we may have done OK.”
“I need to really express my deepest gratitude to all of our incredible partners, of course, to our staff and to our leadership team. They made this dream a reality and their expertise and dedication have really been instrumental in bringing this facility to life.”
Julie Uhrman, ACFC Co-Founder & President
On the opening of the new performance center:
“This is the moment we've been working towards since the inception of this club. I finally get to say the 10 words I've been wanting to say for the last four years - “welcome to the Angel City High Performance Center.”
This high performance center is more than just a place to train. It's a symbol of the commitment to building a championship level experience for our players and staff so they can perform at their best, removing all distractions and excuses.”
“We wouldn't be here without the incredible hard work of a number of people that made this happen. So let me start first, providing my deepest gratitude to Willow Bay and Bob Iger for understanding our vision and how critical it was to provide our players and staff this. This performance center was my first ask, and they couldn't say yes fast enough.”
“Our goal is to provide a standard of professional excellence that our players and staff deserve. We believe that this high performance center does this and so much more.”
“We have been here at Cal Lutheran since our inaugural season in 2022. Through our partnership we've been able to work with their staff as well as students and talk about the future of sports and the role that they can play in it as a professional and even helping with some internships here. So to be able to extend our relationship with Cal Lutheran for many more years is something I'm really excited about and pleased to do.”
Mark Parsons, ACFC Sporting Director
On how the new facility raises the bar in the NWSL:
“I look at keeping your talent. Developing that talent is crucial, but when you develop talent, you often win more games, and when you win more games, people will want your talent. This facility, when people have been here and seen this, I don't know how you're going to want to leave.”
“Having elite staff in talent and character is a huge part, so leading the way in a performance center is superb. It's also huge with recruitment and being able to bring the people, the talent and the characters that we want here. This is about being better, improving performance on the field and being able to win more games. That's what I'm here for.”
“At the same time, I've been in an environment of being able to win before and building sporting departments and building culture. If you don't have the ability to treat these athletes how they deserve, you won't have them on the field for as many games, and when you don't have players on the field for as many games, it's very difficult to perform and to win.”
“Now there's less excuses now for us to be able to get to work. I'm also very aware that you can have great talent, you can have a great performance center, you can have a great stadium, but if you're not connected, aligned, and building teamwork in how we interact, then it's all wasted and that's a core part of why I'm here. Being able to make sure we align the departments and we are connected in our ability to support the athlete in this incredible performance center”
Ali Riley, ACFC Team Captain
On the opening of the new performance center:
“Everyone up here has already expressed so beautifully how meaningful this space is, not just for us as players, not just for our club, but for this league and for women's sports.
“I left the US in 2012 when the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league folded. I said I would never ever come back. However, the last 3 years have been quite the homecoming, and that is thanks in huge part to Julie [Uhrman], Kara [Nortman] and Natalie [Portman], of course, and now with the addition of Bob [Iger] and Willow [Bay] and the 2 Marks [Mark Parson and Mark Wilson] and Matt [Wade], the sky's the limit here.
“When I think about the season ahead and this high performance center, I'm very excited to have these things you will soon see. Beautiful custom locker room, which is astounding. This humongous world class gym and these high tech recovery tools, God knows I need them.”
“I know how hard our staff and players have worked to get here, especially over the last couple of weeks where our staff was working extremely hard to get this ready for the players to come in this past Friday. What I told the team and the staff here on Friday is that what makes me even more happy and grateful and relieved is knowing who I will get to spend my time here with.”
“The house is important, the home is important, and that's what this is, our new home. It's a space where you feel valued, safe, and challenged, and that is all very, very important. What is most important is the people inside the home, the people who you make the memories with. The good and the hard, because as LA knows, you can't take the home with you. The love, the energy, the support, the community, that's what you have for life. That's what you get to take with you.”
“You can take Angel City with you. That is what I will see and what I will feel every single day when I come to this facility. Thank you so much for being here, joining us today. It's been a hard couple of weeks, but I'm so grateful and so happy to be here. The support that this community has given me and my family and the city is overwhelming and again that is what I will feel every day in this facility with this new start and the rebuild that this club has done and what my family and the city will also be doing so thank you.”
Christen Press, ACFC Forward
On the opening of the new performance center:
“It's in the context of how much we all love this city and the tragedy that is all around us that makes this day even more special to give Angelenos and gives all of us something to celebrate. We will be here all year playing for this city and for the people that we love that have lost so much.”
“There's not too many players, but for those of us that have been in the NWSL since its inception, we've played through a lot. We've played through understaffed teams, inadequate facilities, turf so hot it melted the bottom of my cleats. We've played through investigations and abuse. We've played without a players association, without the opportunity to collectively bargain. We've played without respect and dignity, and we did it because we believed in a day like today.”
“We believed that what we got to do is the privilege that we have in playing on the field, it pushes for progress and equity for ourselves and for the future. When Kara [Nortman], Julie [Uhrman], and Natalie [Portman] started this club, what we created symbolized a new era. The promise of a new era for women's sports.”
“When Bob [Iger] and Willow [Bay] joined our team this summer and built this facility, I think that was the creation of that promise. It is the beginning of building what we have intended to do all along at Angel City, which is to set the standard for what women athletes deserve and to resource ourselves with all the things that we need to continue.”
“To chase greatness because when we as women athletes play we play for the larger goal of progress and equity for all people. That's why women's sports are so special. This is an inclusive space, and there's something special in our stadium as all of you know, when people are there to watch us It's not just to cheer for a team, for a goal or for a scoreline. They're cheering for the promise of tomorrow so that their daughters can play and live with dignity and respect, to be empowered, to be courageous, to be unafraid.”
“It's a miracle that I'm standing here today. As many of you know, I had over a two-year recovery from my ACL. I had four surgeries on my knee, and I thought last season that I was returning to maybe in a dream scenario, play a final game or score a final goal. The fact that I get to be here in any training facility is a blessing and a miracle for me.”
“When I walked through these doors, in year 14 of the NWSL and saw the Angel City High Performance Center for the first time, I was brought to tears because of all that we have fought for. For ourselves and for the future to see it come to fruition, to see the fight and be able to enjoy the fruit of that labor is beyond words for me.
“I thought that all that we did was not going to be recognized in my career. I thought I would someday be a fan in the stands looking down with a hint of jealousy and a lot of pride that we laid the foundation for athletes in the future. To have facilities like this and for me to be here in this team this year playing in this facility every single day, fighting in these walls to win Los Angeles a championship and bring home a trophy is a full circle moment for me.
“It's deeply meaningful. I'm so proud when I look at my young teammates and I can say to them, you deserve this. I know when they give everything that they have for the rest of their lives to this sport and to this career that they will be surrounded by excellence, beauty, commitment and professionalism, and that for me is a dream come true.”
Dr. John A. Nunes, President of Cal Lutheran University
On the opening of today’s performance center:
“This is a great day and we are excited to be here with you, I'm happy to be here. I'm kind of happy to be anywhere on a day like today and at a time like this.
“There are more than two genders, but a champion excels in order that she, he or they and their team might win. Angel City Football Club is an organization of champions, and you inspire us at California Lutheran University. It is not a coincidence, I don't believe that our women's soccer team won the national championship last year. We are inspired by you and by this partnership.”
“We are inspired by the alignment of values. It's that our mission goes beyond ourselves, that it's not just about us, you cannot have justice if it's about us. We appreciate the partnership and we are inspired and grateful for a long future together where we speak together the language of championships.”
Performance Center Highlights Include:
Our pitch, over 1.5 fields
A 5,400-square-foot gym equipped with brand-new performance and sports science technology,
A 3,400-square-foot medical treatment and rehabilitation area, a private recovery room, a private doctor's office, and medical staff offices
3 lockers rooms, furnished with Custom lockers for players, coaches, staff
A private outdoor relaxation lounge
Children’s playroom to support the families of our players and staff
Custom pre- and post-training nutrition and supplement area
A nearly 1,000 sq foot team meeting and film room
A content studio
And, I know you’re all excited to see our dedicated Press conference and media room
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