First games to be played at Etowah County Mega Sports Complex

For the first time, there’s going to be actual athletic activity at the Etowah County Mega Sports Complex in Rainbow City.

The complex on Saturday will host the Northeast Alabama Soccer Officials’ annual training event, according to a news release from Greater Gadsden Area Tourism.

The event will feature 29 boys’ and girls’ high school teams playing at least 38 games, to give referees required training to qualify them for state playoff consideration.

Southside boys’ coach Randy Vice, a member of the complex authority’s board and the Rainbow City Council, arranged it. “Coach Michael Farmer from Fort Payne reached out to me to see if we would have the ability to host the event,” Vice said, “and after consultation with the board, it was agreed this would be a great ‘unofficial’ opening.”

Play will begin at 9 a.m. and run through 5 p.m. on four of the complex’s six fields and an additional field at Rainbow Middle School. Given that these are basically exhibition games, there will be no admission charges or parking fees for spectators.

Food trucks will be onsite, according to the release, and there will be green space for chairs and tents.

Parking will be available at the complex and, if there’s runover, at Rainbow Middle School.

The “unofficial” opening will bring the project to the finish line, in a sense, after years of talk, various legal and legislative battles that culminated in a restructuring of its governing authority and funding mechanism, and more than three years of construction at the site off Steele Station Road, near Lumley Road.

“This complex has been a dream of so many for years,” Vice said.

The land for the facility was sold to Rainbow City in 2019, then leased back by the authority. Ranbow City subsequently constructed a road through the property, which serves the dual purpose of alleviating school traffic on Lumley Road for John S. Jones Elementary and Rainbow Middle School, and is considering future development in the area.

“While this has been an achievement for all involved, the participation of Rainbow City has been paramount,” said Vice, who thanked Mayor Joe Taylor and the City Council for his appointment to the authority. He also cited Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford, who was responsible as a state legislator for the bill that created the authority and is a longtime advocate of the complex, as well as “all the former and current authority members for their hard work and vision.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Etowah Mega Sports Complex set for unofficial opening