Making the pitch

When Jason Kelly got to Baton Rouge several years ago, the Buffalo, N.Y., native was surprised and happy to find a thriving soccer community.

But there was a lingering feeling of something missing, especially during the interim periods between seasons for the adult league he played in around Baton Rouge.

So Kelly, one of the LSU soccer program’s biggest advocates and someone who isn’t shy about preaching anything soccer and his love for the game, hatched an idea.

That idea eventually blossomed into the Premier Soccer Center, an indoor soccer facility that opened last December in St. Gabriel and has stayed busy ever since.

“I did my research and went and looked at facilities in other cities, and I noticed it was really succeeding in other cities,” Kelly says. “I just felt with the hot summers and the cold winters here, and with all the LSU students in town, that we could rally people together to play in an indoor league and give them a brand-new experience.”

That experience has grown in leaps and bounds because of what Kelly’s facility offers.

Not only is soccer available in a climate-controlled environment—the motto on the company’s Web site is “No rain, no mud, no lightning, no bugs, no heat, enough said”—the indoor game is also faster paced and much different than its outdoor cousin.

Played on a turf field that’s 200 feet by 85 feet, the indoor game has six players on each team, including a goalie. There are no offsides and no out-of-bounds. The result is faster action, more player involvement at all times and more scoring.

“The ball moves much quicker, and that puts an emphasis on technical skill,” says LSU soccer coach Brian Lee. “The indoor games gives players more chances to touch the ball, and that makes it fun for everybody.”

Adds Baton Rouge Soccer Association director of marketing and development Bo Cassidy, “It’s a super-fast-paced style that gets everybody involved. You’re not dealing with a lot of stoppages because the ball is always in play. Everybody feels like they’re attacking the goal.”

The combination of an indoor environment and faster pace appeals to adults, but a big reason Premier’s growth has exploded is because of what it offers the burgeoning youth soccer crop in the Capital City area.

Kelly says his center averages 40 adult teams in each eight-week league. Last summer, there were 52 youth league teams—ranging from Under-6 co-ed to U-14 for boys and girls—and 33 high-school-level teams. The winter league grew to 76 squads.

“One big reason why we’ve got so much support from soccer coaches is because we understand that we’re seasonal,” Kelly says. “We’re not going to try to run indoor leagues during the outdoor season. Coaches have really latched on to what we’re doing because they love that their players are playing during the offseason.”

Lee says giving younger players a way to fill the gaps between the outdoor seasons is important.

“If a child is going to develop, you really have to play year-round,” he says. “This gives the kids around here the chance to do that.”

What has helped Kelly’s venture succeed is a healthy relationship with the BRSA.

The cost at Premier is $68 per player per league season. BRSA’s costs range from $75-90 for youth per season to $130-170 for the entire year. Adult league costs are between $38 and $97 per person.

All of those numbers add up to a reasonable expenditure to play soccer virtually any time of day, all year ’round, in two different environments and in two different styles of soccer.

“They offer something out there that we don’t, and in a lot of ways, it goes hand-in-hand in enhancing the overall player development opportunities we can provide in Baton Rouge,” Cassidy says. “It gives kids a chance to go indoors and play year-round, and it gives adults a chance to play a different brand of the game—not have to deal with the weather and bugs and enjoy the social experience that comes with it.”

Just how well has Premier been received? Kelly says on a typical weekend, the center hosts games every 45 minutes, starting at 7 a.m. and ending with the final kickoff at 9:15 p.m.

The center is also looking to offer lacrosse and flag football leagues, but right now 99% of the business is soccer.

“With the growth of lacrosse, I think we’ll eventually be able to do really strong stuff there as well,” Kelly says.

In the meantime, Kelly’s goal is to drum up even more interest in Premier’s soccer lifeblood, with a specific goal in mind.

There is room behind the current property to expand and add a second field, and plans are in the works to do so, Kelly says.

“Even though we’re busy, there are a lot of people who still don’t know the facility exists,” he says. “We feel like we haven’t fully tapped into the potential. People who have played out there absolutely love it, so we want to make sure we keep growing it and help soccer flourish in the Baton Rouge area as much as we can.” premiersoccercenter.com