Barça Residential Academy in Casa Grande AZ

[Nova2Euro]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Casa Grande and my kid plays soccer here in NoVA for a local club team. Interesting to read about your son’s experience living and training at the Franny Granny. It blows me away that it’s thought of as a youth soccer destination. I can’t imagine what you thought as you rolled through town and pulled up there.

I had never heard of Casa Grande but you raise a good question — why put a “youth soccer destination” in the middle of nowhere? I guess because it’s a good combination of cheap + low rainfall?

It’s actually a great facility. Photos and information here.

https://www.grandesports.com/

Grande Sports Center was originally training grounds for the San Francisco Giants and opened in 1961. this article has some cool photos from those days: https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/sports/mlb/cactus-league/2019/02/28/francisco-grande-resort-and-baseball-stadium-casa-grande-san-francisco-giants/3015150002/

The “dorm” is total 1960s hotel—most boys are in a two story cinder block building that’s more motel-like but some end up in the main hotel tower. There’s a restaurant and bar in the main hotel.

The city of Casa Grande (locals do NOT pronounce the e on the end—it’s just Grand) is largely a farming community that’s gained some industry and a lot of retirees—it’s on I-10 and close to I-8.

Not questioning that the soccer facilities are nice, only the decision to site it in the middle of nowhere.

Cheap land, lots of sunshine.

OP, this was really informative and interesting. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

It's good your son found value there for the year. Yeah, going there as a 2nd team player means you're helping to subsidize the 1st team kids on scholarship. No different from club soccer in that respect. All the promises of 2nd team players.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Casa Grande and my kid plays soccer here in NoVA for a local club team. Interesting to read about your son’s experience living and training at the Franny Granny. It blows me away that it’s thought of as a youth soccer destination. I can’t imagine what you thought as you rolled through town and pulled up there.

I had never heard of Casa Grande but you raise a good question — why put a “youth soccer destination” in the middle of nowhere? I guess because it’s a good combination of cheap + low rainfall?

It’s actually a great facility. Photos and information here.

https://www.grandesports.com/

Grande Sports Center was originally training grounds for the San Francisco Giants and opened in 1961. this article has some cool photos from those days: https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/sports/mlb/cactus-league/2019/02/28/francisco-grande-resort-and-baseball-stadium-casa-grande-san-francisco-giants/3015150002/

The “dorm” is total 1960s hotel—most boys are in a two story cinder block building that’s more motel-like but some end up in the main hotel tower. There’s a restaurant and bar in the main hotel.

The city of Casa Grande (locals do NOT pronounce the e on the end—it’s just Grand) is largely a farming community that’s gained some industry and a lot of retirees—it’s on I-10 and close to I-8.

NP. We stopped by Casa Grande once on the way to Tucson, both to check out the soccer facilities and see if the town was as dreadful as our friends who had been to conferences there made it sound. The soccer facilities were interesting. That little oasis of green in a parched landscape plus the MCM architecture had a Palm Springs vibe. The town, while unlovely, wasn’t as bad as we were expecting, but it’s apparently a major drug hub as it’s near the crossroads of the highways PP mentioned, and those are the primary roads drug runners use coming from Mexico. Lots of shady meetups in Casa Grande.