DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160603

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   58 lines

U.S. SOCCER TRAINING SITE ENVISIONED AT BEACH IT WOULD BE 1 OF 4 USED BY 16 NATIONAL TEAMS SUCH AS WORLD CUP AND OLYMPIANS.

Officials from the federation that governs American soccer will come here next month to explore building a multi-million dollar national training center.

The U.S. Soccer Federation center would be one of four training sites for 16 national teams, including the Olympic and World Cup teams. The facility would include dormitories, training facilities and practice fields.

A national training center would attract thousands of tourists, world-class exhibition games and international attention to Virginia Beach, city officials say.

``We're really excited about this,'' Virginia Beach Vice Mayor William D. Sessoms said. ``This is something we should definitely pursue very aggressively.''

National team exhibition games would be played in a 6,000-seat, $8 million stadium the city is constructing for the Hampton Roads Mariners. The stadium would have to be expanded, and U.S. Soccer officials say they likely would help pay for the expansion.

Larry Monaco, executive vice president for U.S. Soccer, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday for the Hampton Roads Soccer Council's $2 million, 19-field complex, which could become the site of a training center. Afterward, Monaco toured the site of the city's new soccer stadium with Mariners' co-owners Mark Garcea and Page Johnson and coach Shawn McDonald.

Monaco said he was impressed with the 19-field complex and the plans for the new stadium, both located in Lake Ridge near the GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater. He then scheduled a meeting with Virginia Beach officials and the Mariners for early September.

``Part of our long-range plan is to have four national training centers based on geography and climate,'' Monaco said. ``Clearly, this one will be considered in the very near future.''

U.S. Soccer officials became interested in Virginia Beach after Francisco Marcos, who heads the developmental leagues for Major League Soccer, attended the groundbreaking for the city's stadium June 12.

Marcos says he was so impressed with the stadium and the plans for the soccer field complex that he called Monaco and urged him to consider Virginia Beach as a training center site.

``The federation is a gypsy at the moment,'' Marcos said by telephone from his Tampa, Fla., office. ``They just beg, borrow and rent stadiums in Florida.

``If you have the right sources come together - meaning the city, state and business community - it could work there. You have the right kind of environment, the right population size, the right kind of stadium.''

If a training center were located in Virginia Beach, Marcos said, he will urge U.S. Soccer officials to help expand the city's new stadium to seat 35,000 and make Virginia Beach the primary site for national exhibitions. The expansion could cost up to $60 million.

``Most countries in the Western world have a national stadium where they play most of their games,'' he said. ``I think it's a realistic goal for your area to become the national stadium site.''

Monaco said any training site deal would have to be built with a mix of money from the city and U.S. Soccer.

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