KANAWHA/CABELL COUNTY, WV (WOWK)- Nearly 10,000 people from all across the East Coast have made their way to the Shawnee Sports Complex and the Barboursville Soccer Complex for the U.S. Youth Soccer Eastern Regional Championships.
The tournament kicked off Thursday, featuring 232 youth soccer clubs from 12 different states with players ranging from the ages of 12-19.
The winning club of each individual age group tournament will advance to the U.S.Y.S. National Championships that begin on July 23rd in Orlando, Florida.
The teams participating in the tournament are coming in from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
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13 News spoke with one coach from Long Island, NY, to get his first thoughts on Charleston, and the Shawnee Sports Complex.
“It’s nice, easy to get around. It’s hot so we haven’t done much because we’ve been staying inside other than playing soccer,” said Elliot Abzug, Head Coach of Stony Brook L.N.G. “The complex is beautiful, lots of fields, lots of space, easy to get around. It’s nice.”
The Kanawha County Commission said that over 10,000 people are expected to attend the Eastern Regional Championships, making it by far the biggest event that the Shawnee Sports Complex hosts. They’re also expecting an economic impact to the tune of $32,000,000 coming into the region.
With such a large rush of people flowing into the Charleston area, streets and restaurants are much busier than usual.
13 News spoke with Cody Fauber, the assistant manager at Fife Street Brewery, who spoke on the extra preparations his staff needed to make to ensure they were ready for the extra patrons.
“We definitely had to adjust scheduling and adjust our prep for the kitchen part of things. Our employees are hard at work making more beer because we’ve been flying through it,” said Fauber. “Summer is already busy as it is in Charleston, but with big events like this, it’s just adding to it. There’s definitely been a spike in business.”
The U.S.Y.S. Eastern Regional Championships will conclude on July 3.
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