Truist Point Stadium opened in 2019 to be home to the High Point Rockers baseball team, but it was always billed by city leaders as a “multi-use” stadium.
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, it certainly lived up to that description. City officials announced plans to bring a professional men’s soccer team to the stadium and upgrade the facility.
A team with Major League Soccer’s professional developmental league will play its home games at the stadium in downtown High Point beginning in early 2024. The team is expected to play about 20 games at Truist Point Stadium each year in a soccer season that will partially overlap the summer season of the High Point Rockers baseball team.
This week, the High Point City Council voted to approve a deal that included upgrading the facility and the field to make the stadium a better fit for playing and watching soccer games. The cost of those renovations hasn’t yet been determined – or at least not stated publicly. The stadium cost about $36 million to build.
Major League Soccer gained a huge deal of momentum in June when iPhone-maker Apple announced a 10-yeear deal for Apple to livestream MLS matches beginning in 2023. That agreement has really raised the profile of the league.
High Point’s stadium has a capacity of about 5,000 people. It was a centerpiece in the city’s 2017 “catalyst project,” which was a major effort to bring more business, entertainment and people to a then mostly dead downtown.
Many other attractions in the downtown area have been added in the last five years.
The soccer team will be owned by a group led by Megan Oglesby, and Matt Penley and Mark Penley of Carolina Soccer Ventures, LLC. The group will include local entrepreneurs Alex Moore and Ryan Burkett of Stratagon, Mike Kren and David Bennett of Benchmade Ventures, Melissa and Pablo Webster, and Leah and Chase Hazelwood.
In a Sept. 7 press release from the city, High Point Mayor Jay Wagner stated that he was thrilled about the city’s new sports offering.
“Our community has embraced baseball, and we are thrilled to welcome soccer fans in the near future,” he said.
The mayor added that investing in the coming stadium improvements is “consistent with the original vision of a multi-use stadium.”
