Rick Kelsey to Manage All Soccer Operations at Legacy Sports USA
Legacy Sports Park, a privately owned 320-acre multi-use family sports and entertainment complex in Arizona continues to make additions to its organization with the appointment of Rick Kelsey as National Soccer Director. With plans to officially open in January of 2022, Legacy Sports Park will create more than 1,500 jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in direct economic impact back to the surrounding community.
Soccer News: Legacy Sports USA has named Rick Kelsey as its National Soccer Director. The position will manage all soccer operations for Legacy Sports Park in Mesa, Arizona, as well as future Legacy Sports USA locations. Additionally, Richard Nuttall, the current Director of Soccer for Legacy Sports USA, has been promoted to Legacy Ambassador of Soccer for all Legacy locations.
Kelsey comes to Legacy Sports USA with an extensive leadership background in soccer and business. In his most recent role, Rick served as the CEO of the Arizona Soccer Association (ASA) where he not only oversaw growth in total registrations but also drove significant growth in community-based programming and ASA branding.
In addition to being CEO, Kelsey served on the ASA Board of Directors and on multiple US Youth Soccer (USYS) national committees. This included being a member of the USYS Organizational Growth Committee where he developed a national partnership with the NWSL Players Association and US Youth Soccer.
“Legacy had a big win today with the hiring of Rick Kelsey,” said Jeff de Laveaga, COO of Legacy Sports USA. “Rick will manage and oversee all soccer operations for Legacy’s current and future locations and we know he will be instrumental in our growth and expansion of soccer operations throughout the country.”
Prior to his time with ASA, Kelsey spent more than 18 years at American Express where he held numerous leadership positions overseeing global operations, risk management, and reporting/analytics development and implementations. Kelsey is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he spent eight years serving with the Seabees. During his time with the military, Rick was deployed to Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Storm, Rota, Spain, Guam, and Mogadishu, Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope. He has been married to his wife Jennifer for more than 30 years. They have six children ranging from 10 to 28 years old.
“Legacy Sports USA is developing world-class facilities and experiences that will be second to none, it is very humbling to be a part of that,” said Kelsey. “I am excited to leverage my local, regional, and national network in developing and delivering soccer programs that will be part of such tremendous facilities.”
Media Credit: Legacy Sports USA
