NAPLES, Fla. — In 2025, FC Naples will kick off the season at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex. Before the team, the venue was making a name for itself in the community.
It opened in 2020 with the intention of a professional team, but didn't know it would be FC Naples.
"The limits are real estate imagination," said Michael Lieberman, the assistant general manager of the complex. "This complex was built with many visions in mind."
In the meantime, the complex kept pushing forward with events and building.
"This will be, when fully built out, 180 acres of a sports tourism engine," Lieberman said.
Paid for by tourism tax dollars, the complex features a stadium for the upcoming FC Naples season, which will seat 5,000 people.
"Going east we have fields one through eight — they’re in sets of four," Lieberman said. "Four rectangle multi-purpose fields that we play anything from lacrosse to soccer, football, rugby."
The complex has brought in the largest field hockey and the largest youth football events - which featured more than 200 teams in December.
Additionally, there is an outdoor gym, a Great Lawn for community events, and a bar.
With the plan to attract new events between the community and sports, Fox 4 Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp asked Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall what kind of economic impact this will have.
"It’s a huge economic impact. How you measure it is to be determined," Hall said. "It’s an impact we wouldn’t have if they [FC Naples] weren’t coming."
He says it serves the community in many different ways between the recent fireworks and drone shows to sports camps.
"It's a perfect location," Hall said.
The complex has more work to do as the construction is still going on in phases.
"There’s still one more multi-purpose field to be built," Lieberman said. "And then after that five softball and six all sized baseball fields."
Lieberman says the complex is a blank canvas. The question is what do they want to paint on there.
"As we get more pieces, we will keep delivering," he said.
With the first game in March, Lieberman says it's an experience they cannot wait for you to have as the FC Naples soccer season kicks off.
"We want an 'oh wow,'" he said. "We want that feeling all wrapped up that says I can't believe that all this is right here in my backyard."
