Hampden is site for new facility Indoor soccer, other sports are planned

Mark Franchi’s dream is becoming a reality.

The Englishman who coaches the Hampden Academy girls soccer team announced Tuesday that there will be a multi-purpose indoor facility with artificial turf on Coldbrook Road in Hampden near Dysart’s truck stop and restaurant. He is hoping go break ground within the next two weeks and is looking to open the facility the first week of January.

There are also plans to build two outdoor soccer fields on the nine-acre parcel of land they have purchased from H.O. Bouchard Inc.

“The indoor facility will be 32,500 square feet,” said Franchi, the former men’s soccer coach at Bangor’s Husson College. “There will be two playing surfaces for soccer as well as other sports. One field will be slightly bigger than the other. You could play seven v. [versus] seven or six v. six on one field and five v. five on the other. At least one of the fields will have boards [around it], maybe both.”

Franchi said the price tag for the land and the facility are in the $1 million range and they have received a bank loan. Franchi is involved with a British investor who prefers anonymity at this point.

The Hampden Planning Board has approved the facility and Franchi said the only thing holding up the ground breaking is approval from the Department of Transportation.

“Soccer and field hockey will be the two main sports but we will also include other activities. We plan to have programs for senior citizens, stay-at-home moms and their children,” said Franchi who added that baseball and softball teams and lacrosse players could also find ways to utilize it.

It will be called United Sports LLC (Limited Liability Company) and the artificial turf they will use is called FieldTurf, the same turf that is used at MBNA’s Point Lookout Conference Center in Northport and by several pro and college football, baseball and soccer teams. Former University of Maine Little All-American and NFL linebacker John Huard runs the South Portland-based company that distributes FieldTurf.

Franchi said the facility will be close to exit 44 and he stressed it is for “all communities” in eastern Maine not just Hampden.

He said the idea for the facility has been in the back of his mind for 15 years. He moved his family to Arizona after his stint at Husson in 1986. He set up his business, Passport International, which takes groups on soccer ventures overseas.

Franchi and his family returned to the area in 1996.

“I had thought about it in 1986 but there wasn’t enough going on [soccer-wise] locally at that time [to warrant it],” said the 47-year-old Franchi, who discovered that there was more soccer in the area when he returned five years later.

“The area needs something like this,” said Franchi. “I’m very happy. It’s good to have somewhere for kids and adults to go on a regular basis throughout the year.”

He also said they hope to start building the two outdoor fields in late spring and would like to have them ready for use in the summer.

“One field will be the full 120-by-75 [yards] and the other will be 100-by-50,” said Franchi.