From seats in nearby WakeMed Soccer Park, fans in Cary and Western Wake can attend matches of the local NWSL team, the NC Courage, and a star-filled tournament that draws players from around the globe.
Yet as investment grows in The Soccer Tournament (TST), a new style of soccer tournament aimed at growing the game and a new generation of fans, the future of the North Carolina Football Club at the Cary stadium is less clear.
⚽ TST, a 7v7 tournament draws soccer stars and attendees from around the world for the multi-day event, returns May 27-June 1.
It’s the fourth year since the inaugural tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park, and it’s growing. Tickets go on sale Tuesday.
TST announced a third $1 million competition for 2026–TST Mixed–to its men’s and women’s competitions. Teams of men and women will be “shifting on and off the field throughout the match.”
The Mixed competition is even bringing in a “headliner” in former U.S. Women’s National Team star goalkeeper Hope Solo, plus Welsh club Wrexham Red Dragons.
A four-year extension of Cary as the host of the tournament was announced in October–along with support from the NC Department of Commerce Major Events, Games, and Attractions Fund–to reimburse certain expenses up to $6.8 million through 2029.
By the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau’s estimates, TST’s total economic impact since 2024 is $23.9 million and more than $547,000 in local tax revenue.
What else to know about TST:
- The 2025 event drew a record attendance of 51,730 people to WakeMed Soccer Park, with an estimated 31,000+ from outside of Wake County.
- Nearly 2,000 players from 34 countries competed, including players from clubs like Atlético de Madrid, Inter Milan, Club América, Borussia Dortmund, West Ham United, and Wrexham AFC.
- The Cary Cup, a youth tournament, kicked off last year and will continue in 2026.
- TST includes a festival with a kids zone, food and drink, entertainment, and more for fans of different clubs.
Meanwhile, WakeMed Soccer Park has a less certain future as home of the area’s soccer teams. Plans for a Raleigh entertainment district anchored by a soccer stadium is in the news this week.
Downtown South, planned for south of Downtown Raleigh, is now moving forward according John Kane, one of the project’s partners.
A proposed stadium is the “driver” of Downtown South, said Kane, founder and chairman of Kane Realty Corp., in a recent podcast interview with the Triangle Business Journal.
Kane said the stadium would be 12-15,000 seats “to start with.” He also mentioned the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s choice of Inter-City Visit to Kansas City, home of the first women’s-only pro soccer stadium: “there was a reason for that.”
Another partner in Downtown South, originally announced in 2019, is North Carolina FC (NCFC) president Steve Malik.
⚽ Quick catch-up: Malik announced on November 4, 2025, that the men’s team, which played at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, will not compete this season. Instead, the club is applying for the United Soccer League’s Division One League, a new league with aspirations equal to (but not associated with) Major League Soccer.
⚽ The women’s NC Courage soccer team will begin its 2026 home season on March 14 at the Cary stadium, which seats 10,000.
But the current capacity also falls under the average attendance for National Women’s Soccer League games, NCFC’s director of communications, Jake Levy, said in an email in November.
The NC Courage also broke its single-game attendance record on November 2, with 11,170 fans (above the stadium’s seated capacity).
“Our goal is to be best-in-class in that category, and we are exploring all available options for the long-term success of the club,” Levy said in November.
The Line reached out for additional comment on Friday and did not hear back by deadline for Monday’s newsletter.
⚽ Raleigh or Cary? Malik did not reply to TBJ’s request for comment on Downtown South, but Malik told WRAL in November 2025 that Downtown South would be a “great location.”
He also left other options open: “We’re one of the largest metro areas in the country without any kind of downtown stadium, so it does make a lot of sense. But there are other locations as well.”
A version of this story ran in the February 23 edition of The Line. Sign up to get updates to your inbox here.