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 View of the stadium in 2007 | |
| Former names |
|
|---|---|
| Location | Cary, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Owner | Wake County |
| Operator | Town of Cary |
| Capacity | 10,000[1][2] |
| Surface | Natural grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 2001 |
| Opened | May 2002; 23 years ago (May 2002) |
| Construction cost | $14.5 million (plus $6.3 million expansion) |
| Architect | Envirotek, Inc. |
| Tenants | |
List
| |
| Website | |
| carync.gov/wakemed-soccer-park | |
WakeMed Soccer Park is asoccer complex inCary, North Carolina, United States. It consists of a purpose-built,soccer-specific main stadium namedFirst Horizon Stadium, two lighted practicefootball pitches, and four additional fields. The main stadium and the two lighted fields (2 & 3) are allFIFA international regulation size (120 by 75 yards (110 m × 69 m)). The stadium seats 10,000, while Field 2 also has 1,000 permanent bleacher seats. The complex also sports a full-lengthcross-country course and houses the offices ofTriangle Professional Soccer.
Originally opened in 2002 as the home of theCarolina Courage of theWUSA, WakeMed Soccer Park is now the home toNorth Carolina FC of theUSL Championship and theNorth Carolina Courage of theNational Women's Soccer League. TheNorth Carolina State Wolfpackmen's andwomen's teams of theACC play select matches there and the complex hosts tournaments such as the NCAA College Cup, the ACC Soccer Championships, and the NCHSAA high school state soccer finals.
WakeMed Soccer Park opened in May 2002 as State Capital Soccer Park. The park is on 150 acres (0.61 km2) that thestate ofNorth Carolina has leased toWake County. Money to build the soccer park came from $14.5 million in county-wide hotel room and prepared food and beverage taxes. TheTown of Cary assumed responsibility for operations and maintenance in 2004 fromCapital Area Soccer League. On January 26, 2006, the Town of Cary council amended its lease to allow it to sublet the property toTriangle Professional Soccer through the year 2011 for the exclusive promotion of professional soccer and lacrosse events at the complex.
In November 2011, the Town of Cary kicked off a $6.3 million expansion project. The finished expansion added 3,000 permanent seats to the 7,000-seat stadium, 1,500 of the seats going to the north end zone and the other 1,500 to upper-level stands on the east side of the stadium.
Also added on the east side were a new three-story building to provide restrooms, concessions, and access to the additional seating from the third floor.
Team locker rooms were relocated to the ground level of the new structure to allow players direct access to the stadium from midfield and direct access from their team bus to the locker rooms.[3]
SAS Institute, a Cary-based software company, had naming rights to the complex through June 30, 2007, with the option to extend their naming rights for an additional three years. On September 27, 2007, the Town of Cary announced that SAS had not exercised their option on the naming rights and thatWakeMed Health & Hospitals had purchased the naming rights to the complex for $300,000 per year.[4]
Effective January 1, 2008, the complex became known as "WakeMed Soccer Park". On March 31, 2017, it was announced thatSahlen Packing Company had acquired naming rights to the main stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park, thus becoming "Sahlen's Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park". Sahlen's paid $400,000 over 5 years for the rights, with $100,000 going to the town of Cary and the rest to the North Carolina Courage.[5] On April 30, 2021, WakeMed renewed its agreement through 2023.[6] On December 18, 2024, the main stadium naming rights were purchased byFirst Horizon Bank, renaming the stadium as "First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park".
The grounds also host multiple high schoolcross-country races. Including dual meets, high school conference championships, Mid-East Region Championship, and the Nike Cross Nationals Southeast Regional meets. Thecourse starts and ends behind the practice fields and runs along the perimeter of the grounds. It is known to give personal bests even with a difficult hill which must be run twice. The course record for the 5K distance is 14:23.26 set by Keegan Smith at the 2024 NXR Southeast Regional meet. In recent years it has held the Atlantic Coast Conference's conference championship.
35°47′10.19″N78°45′18.38″W / 35.7861639°N 78.7551056°W /35.7861639; -78.7551056
| Events and tenants | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Men's College Cup host 2005 2007 2009 2014 2019-2022 2025 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Women's College Cup host 2003–2004 2006 2008 2010 2013 2015 2018 2020 2022-2024 | Succeeded by |
