TACOMA, WA – The Puyallup Tribe and Tacoma Public Schools, together with Visa, Street Soccer USA, and Bank of America, have opened a new soccer park on Tacoma’s eastside.
The Visa Street Soccer Park is located on the northeast side of the former Gault Middle School property, next to Tacoma Public Schools’ future IDEA school. The park is part of a broader effort to develop community spaces focused on youth, health, and recreation, and is intended as a public gathering place for families and young people.
The park features two Bank of America fields with professional-grade turf and lighting for year-round use, along with a learning center next to the fields. The two fields can also be combined into a larger space for bigger games.
The Puyallup Tribe and Tacoma Public Schools identified the Gault Middle School site — located near Tribal Administration and long used for recreation — as the location for the park. Visa, Street Soccer USA, and Bank of America joined the project as part of their wider work to expand free, community-based soccer spaces and programming across the U.S.
The tribe’s Language and Culture departments named the site wələx̌ʷildubutali, meaning “place to make yourself strong.” The name is displayed at the park.
The Puyallup Tribe of Indians, RAVE Foundation, Sounders FC, and Reign FC are partnering with Street Soccer USA to provide ongoing programming at the park, with the aim of building connections among local youth, tribal land, and the regional soccer community.
“We are excited to bring this awesome opportunity to grow the game of soccer on tribal land,” said Puyallup Tribal Council. “It will not only be a benefit to tribal members, but everyone in Tacoma.”
The fields are also sized to accommodate a set of regulation blind soccer pitch panels, allowing the site to serve as a regional training hub for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes, which manages the U.S. Men’s Blind Soccer Team.
The park is open to the public at no cost as a multi-purpose playfield.