In Forest City, NC, Legacy Soccer Park boasts six soccer fields, including one artificial turf field of tournament caliber to target travel soccer leagues. Legacy’s design is driven by a commitment to lasting quality and innovation, creating a landmark that serves as a catalyst for economic development.
Funders
RHI Legacy Foundation
NC General Assembly Special Appropriation
Rutherford County Tourism Development Authority
Designed for Connection
The complex is anchored by a large paver plaza acting as a dynamic hub for gatherings and events. The design integrates a custom furnishings package of picnic tables, benches and chairs, two urban futsal soccer courts, and a playground to round off an exceptional recreational experience. The complex’s layout prioritizes accessibility and community by featuring a restroom and concessions buildings, office space. Additional facilities like night lighting, comprehensive field markers, and branded wayfinding signage ensure an inclusive and user-friendly environment.
From Planning
to Place
DbD’s early planning study, which spearheaded the project, determined that a destination-quality, contemporary soccer facility would be a sound strategic investment in the County. The vision to push contemporary architecture in a rural county was brought to life through collaboration with the Stitch Design Shop. The DbD-designed Legacy logo and signage package are key to fostering a unique sense of place and enhancing name recognition. The park’s design meets functional needs while creating a legacy-worthy space, establishing a new standard for rural sports in the region.
Destination by Design partnered with RHI Legacy and Rutherford County Tourism to plan and design Legacy Soccer Park, a six-field, tournament-level complex bringing $17.4 million in sports infrastructure to rural North Carolina. The park includes a tournament-caliber artificial turf field built to attract travel soccer leagues, along with a paver plaza, urban futsal courts, playground, and full construction oversight, establishing Forest City as a premier sports destination in the Southeast.
In North Carolina, recreation master planning and wayfinding often come together most visibly in large-scale sports complexes, where clear navigation matters as much as the fields themselves. Legacy Soccer Park reflects that pairing, combining a custom furnishings package and accessible facilities with branded wayfinding signage, entrance signs, and a navigational kiosk, all designed to reinforce the park’s identity and guide visitors across a six-field campus.
A destination-quality sports facility can be a powerful economic catalyst for a rural county, provided the planning gets the strategy right from the start. Legacy Soccer Park began with a DbD-led planning study that determined a contemporary, tournament-level soccer complex would be a sound investment for Rutherford County, backed by funding from the RHI Legacy Foundation, the NC General Assembly, and the Rutherford County TDA, establishing a new standard for rural sports facilities in the region.
Recreation master planning is the process of designing public recreation facilities, from initial feasibility study through construction, to meet both functional needs and long-term community and economic goals. For Legacy Soccer Park, that meant park planning and design, wayfinding and signage design, and construction oversight, developed in collaboration with Stitch Design Shop to bring contemporary sports architecture to a rural North Carolina county for the first time.
Forest City sits in Rutherford County in the foothills of western North Carolina. Its rural setting made it an unexpected but strategic location for a destination-quality soccer complex, one designed specifically to draw travel soccer tournaments and visiting teams from across the Southeast to a county not typically associated with contemporary sports infrastructure.
