Maryland men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski’s second ten years with the Terps, which included two national championships, were better than his first ten, in which he resurrected the program. He has even more ambitious plans to leave a permanent legacy in his third decade.
“I’ve set a goal that within the next five years, I want to play in a brand new soccer-specific stadium,” Cirovski said Monday, on the cusp of his 20th season in College Park. “We’re going to do it. We’re going to find a way. We’re going to find the money. We’ve got a lot of people that see the necessity of the same vision now.”
Cirovski already has two potential on-campus sites picked out for an 8,000 – 10,000 seat facility. Off-campus is off the table, but imagining all of the trimmings (video boards, electronic signage, a hall of fame) – along with his various other ideas and plans for growing college soccer – is as much a part of Cirovski’s current role as is cultivating another potential national championship contender this year.
“I live in the moment, but I have big dreams and big visions,” Cirovski said. “I think the time has come now to spend a little extra time on that big vision. We built a brand on this campus and in this community. We’ve shown that we need to upgrade. We just played at Creighton this weekend [a preseason 3-3 draw], and I’ve had a picture of their stadium [Morrison Stadium] on the back of my door for ten years now. I want something that’s twice as nice as that. For a long time we’ve purposely not put a lot of brick and mortar into Ludwig [Field] because I didn’t want that to be our permanent solution. We’ve focused a lot on the right stuff.”
The Terps moved into Ludwig Field in 1995, three years after Cirovski took over the program. The atmosphere is among the best in college soccer, but most of the stands are temporary, and there’s still a track around the pitch. (That said, one has to wonder, with the school track program on life support, could putting brick and mortar into Ludwig, in fact, be a possibility?)
Cirovski said partnering with D.C. United, which is also in search of new digs, isn’t likely.
“It’s probably not in the best interests of either [United or Maryland],” he said. “I think it would be a good thing for both but not the best thing for both. There would be a lot of challenges… Hopefully, they get their facility in Buzzard Point that they deserve, and I hope we get the stadium we deserve.”
The biggest obstacle, as always, is money, and Cirovski is fully aware that in the difficult financial climate for the Terps athletic department, it’ll be up to him to find the funds to make his dream a reality.
“It’s going to come down to some people who care about our program opening up their wallets and getting the momentum going,” he said. “That is what I am working on now… I’m prepared to knock on doors and have meetings and beg people to do it. In five years we’re going to have a new stadium.”
