Next to busy MARTA station, another public soccer pitch set to open

A ribbon-cutting this week is set to mark a significant milestone in the quest to create “A League of Stations” for soccer near transit hubs across ITP Atlanta. 

MARTA and Atlanta-based nonprofit Soccer in the Streets are set to formally open the newest StationSoccer pitch at H.E. Holmes station—MARTA’s westernmost train stop—at a Tuesday afternoon ceremony. 

The opening will mark the seventh StationSoccer pitch built on underutilized land in the shadow of MARTA hubs across Atlanta and in neighboring cities. Others operate today at East Lake, East Point, Five Points, Kensington, Lindbergh, and West End stations. 

Tuesday’s grand opening will also commemorate 10 years since the first transit-connected soccer field opened in Atlanta: Five Points station facilities in 2016. 

Scheduled speakers Tuesday include Brad Guzan, Atlanta United FC Club Ambassador and Sporting Advisor (and legendary goalie), Atlanta Mayor Andre Dicken, MARTA’s new general manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt, and Kevin Egan, National MLS Apple on Air announcer. 

The H.E. Holmes StationSoccer pitch has transformed part of a former parking lot to expand access to free and low-cost youth development programs in the neighborhood—at one of MARTA’s largest and busiest stations, where 22,000 patrons use bus and rail transit on a daily basis. 

The two mini StationSoccer pitches have taken shape in the southeast corner of the station parking lot, adjacent to Invest Atlanta’s i-Village, a retail shipping container village. 

The soccer component is part of a much larger, 22-acre redevelopment with housing and retail that’s been in planning stages for several years at H.E. Holmes station. The transit hub originally opened in 1979. 

For Soccer in the Streets, which was founded in 1989, the latest transit-adjacent pitch is another effort to draw in kids with soccer to participate in “life-changing programming to set them up for success,” per the agency. Revenue from adult leagues is channeled back into the youth programs. 

The “League of Stations” concept calls for creating a system in which “kids and adults can take pride in representing their own station ‘club’ and play others by hopping on MARTA.”

According to Soccer in the Streets officials, additional StationSoccer pitches are in the works at Doraville, Bankhead, and Civic Center stations, filling in ITP coverage gaps.  

Below is what that looks like in map form, with H.E. Holmes station included: 

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