City presents Naaman sports-park plan, partnership with pro soccer group's youth and tournament programming

City staff briefed the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on a sports-park proposal near Naaman Forest tied to a multiyear effort to attract a USL professional soccer presence to Garland.

Assistant City Manager Hesser explained the site is being developed primarily for youth soccer, tournaments and club facilities rather than as a professional stadium. "This facility is for club soccer, youth soccer, tournaments," Hesser said, adding the owners plan separate leases for training, front office and field operations.

The project area includes fields that were purchased by the city and adjacent commercially developable land that was previously encumbered by a conservation easement for grazing but permits recreational use. Hesser said that part of the property is being held for future mixed-use commercial development adjacent to the sports fields.

Board members raised transportation and parking questions; Hesser said parking would be located primarily on the opposite side of Naaman and that an interlocal agreement (ILA) with DART covers a nine-acre site used currently as a bus transfer location and that, if a large development proceeds, the bus transfer would have to be relocated and reconstructed as part of project obligations.

Hesser said the stadium element remains a separate and financially larger undertaking and that the club—s owners are pursuing a multi-faceted strategy: youth clubs, an academy, tournament fields and a separate potential stadium project elsewhere. He estimated construction and permitting timelines would be driven by funding and design processes, and that the practice/game campus could be in use as soon as the fall of the following year depending on approvals and buildout.