Colorado Soccer Foundation and Soccer City Aurora

In early 2018, Swallow Charitable Foundation began a relationship with the Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club (CRYSC), the largest youth soccer organization serving the Metro Denver region. SCF provided significant support for CRYSC’s after-school program which offered recreational soccer programing to 1,000 kids each fall and spring season and has laid the groundwork for providing soccer opportunities in communities where the pay-to-play youth soccer model is financially out of reach for many families. In 2019 SCF and CRYSC launched a new nonprofit organization called Colorado Soccer Foundation (CSF). As part of this project, SCF purchased a 3.6-acre parcel of land in Aurora, CO on which we have built a just-completed facility called Soccer City Aurora. It has five outdoor soccer fields, ranging in size from 60’x90’ mini pitches to 130’x180’ 7v7 fields, and is also the site of the new 5,000-square-foot headquarters of CSF.

Soccer City Aurora operates as a soccer community center where, for a nominal annual fee, kids can play pick-up soccer any day of the week. Additionally, it offers low-fee field rentals to local teams, particularly those operating in the surrounding neighborhoods and providing affordable competitive soccer programming to kids who otherwise struggle to access pay-to-play club soccer.

The Colorado Soccer Foundation has taken over the operation of the after-school program, now called After School FC, which continues to provide the only opportunity many Denver-area kids have to participate in a team sport. CSF is looking for partners to help expand After School FC.

Click here to learn more about the Colorado Soccer Foundation.

Colorado International Soccer Academy

In 2019, SCF began a partnership with another Denver-area organization called the Colorado International Soccer Academy (CISA). CISA’s mission is to provide recreational- and competitive-level soccer programming on par with that of the large pay-to-play clubs for a fraction of the cost.  

There’s no getting around the fact that competitive youth soccer is expensive. Field rentals, association fees, referee fees, uniforms, tournament fees and insurance are all unavoidable costs adding up to many hundreds of dollars per player per year. And this is without any coach salaries or club administrative overhead.  

In partnering with CISA, we hope to leverage the efforts of a dedicated cadre of volunteer (or semi-volunteer) coaches to help make high-quality soccer programming accessible for all kids who want to play.

Other Work

Swallow Charitable Foundation is developing relationships with other Denver-area organizations and actively seeking further opportunities, with additional partners, to increase the availability of low-cost youth soccer programming throughout the Metro Denver region.