Pro Soccer Team From CT Moves Winter Training Camp To Lakewood Ranch

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — The Hartford Athletic, a professional soccer team in Connecticut, has partnered with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau to bring its winter training camp to Manatee County in February.

The Athletic competes in the Eastern Conference of the USL Championship, the second-highest level of the United States soccer league system.

The Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch will be the team’s official spring training home, according to a BACVB news release.

The campus features 23 FIFA-regulation-sized fields and a 3,000-plus-seat stadium with scoreboards and a press box. It hosts games from the community level to national and international events.

The BACVB’s logo will be placed on jersey sleeves for both home and away uniforms of the Athletic, the agency said. Its logo will also be placed on marketing and advertising promotions throughout the Athletic materials in the Hartford area, including on TV broadcasts of Athletic matches.

The Athletic-BACVB partnership comes less than one year after Breeze Airways launched nonstop service between Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) and Hartford’s Bradley International Airport.

Elliott Falcione, executive director of the BACVB, said since launching in June, the Breeze route connecting Sarasota-Bradenton to Hartford has been “a great success.”

The BACVB’s new partnership with the Athletic is a sign of further strengthening the ties between Hartford and the Bradenton area, he added.

“We think the athletes are going to enjoy training in the Bradenton area during a perfect time of year and we feel in our hearts that they will come back for many years to come,” Falcione said. “The fans are going to have new reasons to visit the Bradenton area and they’ll discover the quick, easy ways to get here with more travel options than ever. And maybe, best of all, we’re giving Bradenton area residents a new way to connect with professional soccer that has become as popular in the U.S. as it is around the world.”

Joel Conybear, Hartford Athletic’s senior vice president of integrated sales, said, “Our team has been energized by the creativity that the BACVB team has brought to the table, and we look forward to a number of fun fan activations throughout the rest of the year. We are incredibly excited to send our athletes to the beautiful Bradenton area for a warm and comfortable spring training that will properly prepare them for the start of the season.”