A push for soccer Hall of Fame in Poconos

The bid to host the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Marshalls Creek, Monroe County, has received an assist from U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey (D., Pa.).

Casey wrote last week to U.S. Soccer Federation CEO Dan Flynn urging the federation to accept the proposal by a group of local investors to build the complex on the former Mountain Manor resort property. The proposal calls for combining a 40,000-square-foot hall of fame with a 5,000-seat stadium, 20 outdoor fields, and at least one major hotel.

"A facility of this scale would need to be geographically placed in a well-populated area and have existing transportation infrastructure that would ensure safe and easy accessibility," Casey wrote. "The Poconos region already attracts 25 million visitors per year and generates $2 billion in annual revenues."

He noted that Pennsylvania has the third-highest number of registered youth soccer clubs in the country. The Pocono Mountains are within close proximity of 10 Major League Soccer teams, he added.

The Hall of Fame honors the greatest teams, players and events in U.S. soccer history.

The Hall of Fame, founded in 1950 by the Philadelphia Oldtimers Soccer Association, was for years located in Oneonta, N.Y., but closed in 2010 due to financial problems. Its displays and archives have been warehoused by a soccer corporate sponsor in Hillsborough, N.C.

Frisco, Texas, a Dallas suburb, entered into a nine-month exclusive negotiating agreement that apparently expired in May without a deal being reached to build the Hall of Fame there. An MLS franchise is based there.

"We're still waiting for formal notification that the U.S. Soccer Federation has chosen Frisco, and we haven't heard anything back," said Gary Olson, a local bank executive who is part of the investor group making the Marshalls Creek proposal. "We haven't heard anything official yet."

Officials at the USSF did not return calls seeking the status of the Hall of Fame project.

The Mountain Manor investors group includes the property owners, Russ Scott and Craig Scott; land surveyor Frank J. Smith; and Jim Caporusso, who initiated the proposal. Letters of support for the Marshalls Creek complex were previously submitted by State Rep. Rosemary Brown (R., Monroe) and officials from the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau and several area resorts.

The group initially met last fall. It finalized a board structure in February. That was followed by submission of a PowerPoint presentation of the local proposal to the USSF.

The proposal also has the support of former local soccer players with ties to East Stroudsburg University. They include Ridley Park's Bob Rigby, a former goalkeeper with the Philadelphia Atoms and Philadelphia Fury and the first soccer player featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Jay Miller, former head coach of the U.S. under-17 national team.

Olson estimates it would cost from $10 million to $15 million to build the Hall of Fame and the 20 soccer fields. Cost of a 5,000-seat stadium and a hotel are unknown.