CENTENNIAL — With their glitzy new performance center in the backdrop, a pair of players described how the team’s state-of-the-art facility was another milestone moment for American women’s professional soccer.
Summit FC goalie Abby Smith and defender Janine Sonis both played their rookie year in 2013, when the National Women’s Soccer League was still in its infancy. Smith’s Boston Breakers had their locker room in a trailer at Harvard, where the team rented field space from the university. And Sonis, who played for the Houston Dash, practiced at youth fields next to the facility of the Dynamo, the city’s MLS franchise.
Contrast that to what Summit FC unveiled on Friday: The 20,000-square-foot CommonSpirit Performance Center with all the bells and whistles that a men’s professional team would expect.
“We didn’t have any of our own spaces, no common area, no meeting space, none of our own (training space) with the Dash,” Sonis recalled. “That was my first professional experience, and now to fast-forward 10 years, this facility is just a dream come true.
“… It’s literally like an athlete’s wonderland in there.”
The CommonSpirit Performance Center, budgeted at around $25 million but which came in slightly over due to tariffs and overtime, has three corresponding training fields. The adjacent Centennial Stadium is where Summit FC will start playing next month. The 12,000-seat modular stadium will serve as the team’s temporary venue for a couple of years until the completion of the team’s permanent home, a 14,500-seat stadium at Santa Fe Yards in Denver.
Summit FC’s performance center was completed in about a year, and roughly 18 months after Denver was awarded the NWSL’s 16th expansion franchise. Summit FC controlling owner Rob Cohen said the facility was designed with potential future expansions in mind for the club, which has rapidly grown to a business staff of about 55 and a front office/coaching/training staff of about 30.
“The vision has always been to continue to make sure that we had a facility that not only meets our needs today, but can expand and change over time,” Cohen said. “And so we have designed this performance center intentionally with the idea that if we end up getting a second team at some point in the future — who knows what the league’s going to do (on that), that’s a total what-if right now — we have room.”
For now, the CommonSpirit Performance Center has everything needed to support what Cohen has set out to achieve since he founded the team: world-class amenities for world-class women’s soccer players.
The facility houses offices for coaches and front-office staff, has multiple meeting rooms, a mother’s room, and separate coaches’ locker rooms for males and females. A massive weight room looks out onto three practice fields — two grass and one turf — and there is also a goalie training area as well as an outdoor turf training space. The sod used for the practice fields as well as the stadium is from Platteville company , which also grew sod for several 2026 FIFA World Cup sites.
The hallways are already adorned with photos of key moments from the club’s inaugural season, including shots of the team’s first goal by Melissa Kössler in March in San Jose and of the record crowd that attended Denver’s first home match later that month at Empower Field.
It’s also outfitted with all the latest high-tech recovery technology, including hydratubs, a nap pod, a dry float tank, a cryotherapy room, red light therapy and several massage rooms. Plus, there’s a U-18 locker room for future use and a first-team locker room where each locker bears the name of a Colorado 14er, while the club’s D logo hangs from the ceiling.
All of that puts the CommonSpirit Performance Center at the forefront of the NWSL, which has recently seen an array of clubs including Angel City FC, Bay FC, the Portland Thorns and the Kansas City Current. The CommonSpirit Performance Center was designed by Populous, and prior to its opening to Summit FC players last week, the club was training at Infinity Park in Glendale.
“This is peak (NWSL facility),” Smith said. “(More facilities like this one) are going to only push and drive the league to be better.”
Cohen added that he believes the unveiling of the CommonSpirit Performance Center is “seeing the investment in women that should have been there for a long time.” The team’s ownership group paid for the facility, while Centennial Stadium was financed by the ownership group and the Cherry Creek School District, with contributions from the city of Centennial for land and some infrastructure.
Summit FC, which has been playing its home games at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park following the inaugural opener at Empower Field, will debut at Centennial Stadium on July 18
“Facilities like this don’t happen by accident. They happen because people have a vision and they’re willing to invest in it and for that (us players are) incredibly grateful,” Sonis said. “I imagine (July 18) will feel really different to both Empower and Dick’s in an incredible way that this is ours, and it’s green, and it’s made for us… and hopefully we can pay everyone back with three points (from a win that day).”
