MATCHPORT VILLAGES

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For many, big league dreams are just that. Fortunately, with an Arts-in-Sports degree, there are plenty of opportunities to pursue a passion off the pitch, too.

The Grand Sports Academies (GSA) offer youth athletes elite boarding scholarships for a term of four (4) years at a time for children starting in fourth grade (elementary school). 

Creating a unique ecosystem

We have a unique opportunity to provide a quality education for these children. Our goal is to help break the cycle of poverty and our mission begins with the children. Most children born into poverty unfortunately continue that cycle throughout their lives, and we have discovered how combining a strong academic curriculum with elite athletic training and education offer an effective way to facilitate a prosperous future for them.  

The Grand Sports Academy is a key post COVID-19 project for urban development and sports facilities masterplan that aims to promote a more sustainable, healthy, and active society at all levels of participation nationwide. Designed for long-term legacy usage from the beginning, the sports hub sets a new standard for adaptability and social integration. By providing premier venues for major sports events and inviting inclusive public destination spaces, the sports hub is an elite, world-class sports destination that encourages everyday public participation.

Soccer affects and shapes religion, politics, and social life across the world. It sparks public debates, and in many countries, even approaches a religion. It has ingrained itself into national cultures, beyond any player or any game. It’s found virtually everywhere. It’s heritage, it’s love. It’s a way of life. It’s unpredictable yet defining. It’s aspirational and children grow up dreaming to provide a better life for their family through soccer.

Soccer brings together an entire population regardless of age, race, gender identity, culture, and socioeconomic status, igniting a spirit like no other.

The sport of soccer is about bouncing back, and learning from mistakes. The earlier athletes can learn these skills, the better. Overall, the psychological and social benefits of playing soccer can help children become well-rounded, mature adults. Soccer is a proven tool to fight poverty. In combination with a strong education, we see it as an effective way to facilitate opportunities for a prosperous future for thousands of children from across the Americas. 

Evolution of Soccer

In England during the reign of King Edward, between the years 1307–1327, there were laws passed that threatened imprisonment for anyone caught playing the beautiful game of European football. 

Today, according to FIFA, more than 300 million players are actively involved in soccer, through associations in more than 204 countries around the world, roughly about 4% of the world's population. More than 825 million people play soccer as a leisure activity (roughly 1 in 10), making it not only one of the largest industries, but the world's most popular sport.

Humans are social animals, and one of the ways we bond with each other is through playing games. The competitive nature of sports has given it a crucial role in history - as nations compete with nations and individuals struggle to be the best. It is no wonder that sports have changed the course of history more than once - for example, with the famous World War I Football (Soccer) Cease-Fire. 

On December 17, 2014, a commemorative match was played between the British Army and the German Bundeswehr (armed forces) at the home of National League club Aldershot Town. The exhibition, dubbed the 'Game of Truce', was intended to honor "the spirit of the 1914 truce using the international language of football (soccer)"  (History.com)

It did not take long for other European countries to adopt the British love for soccer. Leagues began popping up throughout the world: the Netherlands and Denmark in 1889, Argentina in 1893, Chile in 1895, Switzerland and Belgium in 1895, Italy in 1898, Germany and Uruguay in 1900, Hungary in 1901, and Finland in 1907. It was not until 1903 that France formed their league, even though they had adopted the British sport long before.

Federation of International Football Association (FIFA)

FIFA was formed in Paris in 1904.  Seven (7) members: Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Germany announced its intention to join the same day.

In 1930, the first-ever FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay. There were 41 members of FIFA at the time, and it has remained the pinnacle of the soccer world ever since. Today it boasts over 204 members, and the World Cup is the biggest single-sport international sporting event of the year, recently attracting an average of 3.5 billion viewers, roughly 45% of the world’s population. (Compared with the 2019 Super Bowl which drew a total audience of 100.7 million).

In the 1920s, soccer was on the cusp of becoming a major sport in the United States. Then it all crashed and burned. 

The Grand Sports Initiative seeks to tap into what we believe is a strongly underserved market for American soccer, to drive development and fuel imaginations.

Currently, over 90% of the countries in the world consider “soccer” as their national sport. Soccer is widening its horizons to new continents, in 2019 more youth were playing soccer than ever before, with over 35 million playing regularly and over 7 million active players within 10,000 clubs and leagues across the US. More than 35 percent of American households contain someone playing soccer.  

The Grand Sports Initiative (GSI)

The GSI promotes a safe environment for young athletes, featuring highly skilled coaches, professionals, and officials that aim to implement internationally recognized development models featuring a holistic philosophy that combines education, sport and the true understanding of life for our players. It will not only serve the young boys and girls of Latin America and North America by allowing them to develop their skills as soccer players, but also to develop academically and socially, as they grow into young adults and prepare for college and life. 

Graduates of the GSA become lifelong Ambassadors of an alumni association that can help transform the world of sports in the future and help children develop the skills to bring the necessary change back to their own communities and to help reduce inequality and break the cycle of poverty. Today, 72.5% of professional soccer players have a bachelor's degree, and 10.2% of professional soccer players have master's degrees. 

The passion from supporters is what makes soccer so great - how a single team can have dedicated fans from all over the world, hundreds and thousands of miles away from the stadium. The ways in which supporters reacts to their team - be it the jubilation and ecstasy of a win or victory or the devastation or sadness that comes with a loss - are shared.

A catalyst for change

Sports teach children skills vital to a healthy lifestyle, including fair play, team spirit, tolerance, and inclusion. It increases understanding of one’s self and of others, regardless of one’s status as teammate or opponent. Children learn to cope with winning and losing, take responsibility for their team, and participate in shaping their community. Sports is an art-form that teaches: community transformation, self-sustainment, empowerment, traits that can dramatically improve children’s basic quality of life, and have lasting effects. It is about understanding the fundamental principles of “community development” - growth of creative placemaking as a serious practice, supporting development, nurturing health and well-being, and contributing to economic opportunity. Soccer has the power to bring communities together from around the world. When we participate in soccer, we join a supportive community full of competition and compassion. This interaction helps expand global knowledge and cultural understanding. 

Place-based sport for development accelerators

Through our extensive and collaborative network, we aim to build cutting-edge and integrated sports infrastructure that cater for and provide unique opportunities for children of all ages with extensive and vigorous elite training programs, while hosting local, regional, national, and international friendlies and tournaments, and delivering professional place-based off-season training facilities and services to professional soccer teams. Our infrastructure allows soccer promotors, sponsors, advertisers, vendors, and organizers to trade and  

carry out 'B-2-B' more conveniently and effectively, thus building a stronger culture to improve American soccer delivery and development.

 Located within 100 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexican nationals entering the United States with a passport or visa may remain in the “border zone” and for up to 72 hours without having to obtain an I–94, for purposes other than as a temporary visitor for business or pleasure.  This allows GSA -- Grand Sports Academies in Casa Grande to host friendly soccer games and tournaments to promote cultural exchange and friendly competitive sports, which sets the stage for far greater soccer infrastructure that incorporates talented athletes and competitors from Mexico. It also positions MATCHPORT as a window to the world - providing strong visibility and promoting talented U.S. and Mexican soccer players.

MATCHPORT is the epicenter of Block Sports - a sports hub that will become the home to a number of premier venues, designed to achieve maximum flexibility with more than twenty (20) real and artificial  pitches, and five (5) climate-controlled air cooled indoor pitches designed with a movable roof and retractable seating.  Five (5) state-of-the-art, live streaming VR/AR technology fitted multi-purpose arenas, and plenty of spaces for spectators to enjoy the sporting action both off the pitch and within the Grand Sports masterplan. A wide range of hospitality, entertainment and amusement developments provides attractive shopping and dining experiences for visitors. Designed to be a civic space as well as a site of major sporting events, both the facilities and the design reflect this, destined to become a new urban core, unifying all community sports, lifestyle and civic facilities into a dynamic whole.

What makes our proposed sports hub such a unique proposition, as well as a sporting destination? It was designed with both elite sports, global sports distribution and community activities in mind - prepared to meaningfully address local issues and enact strong lasting and transformational social change empowering thousands of children.