Southwest Atlanta has a new place to kick a ball, meet neighbors, and grow the game. On Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the ribbon was cut on a new mini soccer pitch at the Andrew & Walter Young Family YMCA.
The City of Atlanta marked the opening as more than a ceremony. In posts following the event, officials described the compact field as “a new place to play, connect and grow,” and as another way to expand opportunities for young people in the city’s southwest neighborhoods.
Mini Soccer Launches at Young Family YMCA
The pitch sits at one of Atlanta’s most storied community centers. Founded in 1959 as the Southwest Y and later renamed for civil rights leaders Ambassador Andrew Young and Dr. Walter Young, the branch at 2220 Campbellton Road SW has served families in East Point, College Park, Hapeville, West End, and surrounding neighborhoods for more than six decades.
Recent years have already brought major upgrades to the campus, including a multimillion-dollar renovation of indoor spaces. The new outdoor pitch adds a dedicated soccer home to that investment.
Part of a statewide soccer legacy
The field is a GA 100 mini-pitch, one of a growing network of small-sided soccer spaces funded by the Atlanta United Community Fund, an associate-led fund of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. Launched in 2020 in partnership with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), GA 100 aims to build up to 100 pitches in under-resourced communities across Georgia. Eligible partners can receive matching grants of up to $100,000. By early 2026 the program had committed nearly $4.5 million and advanced more than 50 pitches into construction or operation.
Atlanta United has framed the campaign as World Cup-era infrastructure that should last long after the tournament lights dim. “The growth of soccer is felt not just in our stadium, but in neighborhoods across Georgia,” Chief Business Officer Skate Noftsinger said when the fund announced a new round of grants this year. “Creating safe, accessible places to play” is how the club says excitement becomes a lasting community asset.
The Young Family YMCA site had been on the 2026 opening calendar alongside other GA 100 projects, including pitches at schools, parks, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other YMCA branches. Mini-pitches in the program are typically compact courts—often about 60 by 90 feet—with goals and rebound boards designed for small-sided games, clinics, and informal play. That format fits after-school programs, summer camps, and neighborhood pickup equally well.
Why this YMCA matters
The Young Family Y already offers swim lessons, day camp, after-school care, a teen center, a gymnasium, and wellness programs. Soccer has deep roots in Atlanta’s YMCA network: organized youth soccer in the United States traces much of its early growth to YMCA leagues launched in metro Atlanta in the late 1960s. Adding a dedicated mini-pitch on Campbellton Road extends that tradition into a neighborhood where families already come for childcare, fitness, and youth development.25
For the city, the ribbon cutting also fits a broader push to treat recreation as neighborhood infrastructure. Dickens has repeatedly tied youth sports to opportunity—safe places to play, scholarships, clinics, and public-private partnerships that keep facilities open after the cameras leave. Pairing the city’s most visible soccer club with one of its oldest YMCAs is a practical version of that idea: a field next door to programs that already serve children every week.
What comes next
The pitch is now open as part of the YMCA campus. Families looking to use it can start with the Andrew & Walter Young Family YMCA at (404) 523-9622, or follow YMCA of Metro Atlanta and Atlanta United Community Fund programming for clinics, camps, and league play. Statewide, GA 100 continues to accept and build projects at schools, parks, and community organizations working toward the 100-pitch goal.36
A ribbon is a beginning, not a finish line. The measure of this field will be the after-school scrimmages, first touches, and Saturday pickup games that follow—soccer made ordinary, and close to home, in Southwest Atlanta.
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