The Union break ground on a $55 million expansion of their practice facility, and promise more for Chester

The Union broke ground on the $55 million expansion of their practice facility on Monday, with a ceremony that brought dignitaries from the team, the city of Chester, and WSFS Bank, the corporate sponsor of what will be called the WSFS Bank Sportsplex.

The expansion will produce five new outdoor fields, two with natural grass and three with artificial turf. Most will be to FIFA’s required dimensions for soccer, 120 yards long by 75 yards wide, but some will be smaller so they’re easier for youth teams to play on.

There will also be a big new building to house facilities for the Union’s youth academy and reserve team, plus an indoor turf soccer field, two multisport hard courts, a strength and conditioning center, and 5,000 square feet of retail space. The indoor facilities will be available for the public to rent, and WSFS will donate 365 hours of field and facility usage per year to community groups.

“It took an awful lot of folks to come together and partner up and work together to make it a reality,” Chester mayor Thaddeus Kirkland said. “We applaud you and appreciate your partnership and your willingness to say this is an awesome investment.”

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Union principal owner Jay Sugarman returned the favor on stage, and in an interview with reporters afterward said he wants to do much more in and for Chester.

“We realized to get the community to engage with us 365 days a year, it couldn’t just be a stadium, couldn’t just be a power plant [across the parking lot],” he said. “We had to take this whole idea and make it something that when you come off that [Commodore Barry] bridge, you go, ‘What is that place, I want to be there.’ … I still have 100 things I want to get done, but this is a big one.”

It wasn’t easy for the Union to secure the land to build the facility on since the Chester riverfront was long divided up into a bunch of small parcels. And it’s not a coincidence that this planned development will fit entirely between Seaport Drive, the river, and the former Delaware County Electric Company power plant that Sugarman referred to.

“The idea was always this will be a 365-[days]-a-year campus,” Sugarman said. “We will connect not just this community but this community to other communities, which is really what’s missing. I think the stadium is fantastic — it’s one of my favorite stadiums in the league — but you can only activate it 25 times a year.”

Sugarman didn’t need reminding that the original master plan for the Subaru Park complex included a lot of commercial retail space that never got built. With the new complex occupying so much space — the new team facilities and indoor sports complex will take up 170,000 square feet combined — there won’t be room for more buildings on the riverbank.

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Sugarman hopes that the team’s new construction will spark interest in developing the vacant and under-used lots between Seaport Drive and Route 291 that the team doesn’t own. And he wasn’t afraid to say it bluntly.

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“We need other partners to chip in here and really help us create that vision,” Sugarman said. “Once people see that there’s no going back, that this is going to be a magnet, I think you’re going see a lot of people start asking questions about how can they participate. We’re doing everything we can to set the stage for that.”

There has been some private development in the area in recent years, most notably the Larimer Beer Company on Engle Street. The team is also doing some renovations to Reaney Street, which will now become the unofficial front door to the stadium complex on game days.

“I look across Seaport Drive and I see businesses starting to ask those questions,” Sugarman said. “Pretty soon, I’m hoping larger businesses start to want to be part of this.”

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The Union are also battling the headwinds caused by Chester’s bad financial situation. The city has filed for bankruptcy and faces the threat of “disincorporation:” having its municipal government dissolved.

The city’s state-appointed receiver, Michael Dowery, told a hearing earlier this month that the threat is “a very real warning.”

Sugarman said the city has “definitely been dealt a tough hand,” but he is not on the pessimists’ side.

“I think you’ve got people who are starting to talk about Chester in terms of a long-term vision, which is what we’ve always felt we could be a part of,” he said. “We are engaged and interested and trying to help wherever we can, but everybody’s going to have to come together. … They’re not going to be able to do it on their own, they’re going to need everybody to push. And we’ll certainly be part of that.”

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Because the new fields will be built on what are now parking lots B and C, there will be shifts in the parking setup for games.

One shift has already happened: The Sons of Ben supporters’ club’s tailgate has moved from the back of lot B to next to Reaney Street. A Union spokesperson said there won’t be any more big changes until after the April 26 Concacaf Champions League semifinal home game against Los Angeles FC.

After that, neither the Union nor their reserve team will play at home until mid-May. That’s the targeted time for the start of major construction.

The spokesperson said an announcement would be made at that time with more details.