Seats are going in, the pitch is almost done, fans are choosing their spots, and AC Grand Rapids has its first head coach as opening day approaches.
If you’ve driven US-131 through Grand Rapids over the past year, you’re one of many who have watched Amway Stadium evolve in real time. But under the steel canopy that crews finished in late May, it’s easy to miss what’s happening on the inside.
Seat installation started at the end of September, and crews are now finishing putting in the pitch, the soccer field itself. That work started in July, when crews dug out the center of the site and moved roughly 50,000 tons of earth to bring it down to the right depth for a soccer field. With the surface going down now, the pitch will be ready when the team arrives for its first practices in January.
“We’ve got to get the pitch in before the winter,” Rockford President and CEO Shane Napper told WOOD TV 8 at the topping-out ceremony in May. That was always the goal, allowing crews to spend the winter finishing the interiors and preparing for a spring opening. AC Grand Rapids will play its first home match on Friday, March 19, 2027, the first sporting event ever held at the stadium.
A Seat for Everyone
Fans can now start picturing themselves in the stands. In mid-October, the club released Amway Stadium’s seat map. For soccer, the stadium will seat 8,274, plus about 400 standing. Options include two supporter sections, pitchside seats, field-level suites, and party decks. Season memberships start at $19 a match in the supporter sections, and standing-room tickets cost $12.
“This club belongs to all of West Michigan,” AC Grand Rapids President Darrius Barnes said in the club’s announcement.
And fans have responded. More than 7,000 deposits have been placed since June, which the club says is a record for a men’s team outside Major League Soccer. Depositors started choosing seats on October 20, in the order they signed up, and single-match tickets go on sale after the new year.
Building a Club From the Ground Up
As the stadium takes shape, so does the club that will call it home. AC Grand Rapids has been assembling the team that will lead the club, including several with ties to West Michigan.
Barnes was the club’s first hire, brought on as president last November after launching Crown Legacy FC, Charlotte FC’s MLS NEXT Pro affiliate. He was later joined by Kalamazoo native B.J. Snow, vice president of sporting operations and strategy, who previously served on the U.S. Women’s National Team coaching staff during its 2015 and 2019 World Cup title runs. Two more leaders with West Michigan ties joined the club this summer. Ted Van Zelst, who grew up in Sturgis, where his father started the town’s youth soccer program, joined as chief revenue officer after building a modern sponsorship department for the Detroit Pistons. Describing what it means to join a club in its earliest days, Van Zelst said, “That’s a legacy worth chasing.”
Eric Laurie, a Hastings High School and Western Michigan graduate, spent a decade in Norway and more than four years with the U.S. Men’s National Team technical staff, including the 2026 World Cup. He joined AC Grand Rapids as head of scouting, recruitment, and performance analysis and said he wants to help build a team that can “give this community something to be proud of.”
On October 1, the club named Erik Bushey its first head coach. Bushey has led Colorado Rapids 2 since the league’s first season in 2022, earning MLS NEXT Pro Coach of the Year in 2023 and taking the team to the league final last year. He has the second-most wins in league history. Asked by WOOD TV 8 what he’d tell fans, Bushey kept it short: “Get ready.”
Two weeks later, Jordan Ferrell joined as assistant coach after most recently serving as technical director at Oakland Roots SC, where he helped found the club’s local talent program and its women’s team. On the opportunity to build a club from the ground up, Ferrell said it “means we can build it the right way right from the first kick.”
The Roster Comes Next
No players have signed yet, but the work to build the roster is underway. The club is working with Fokus, a data company that grew out of Norway’s FK Bodø/Glimt, on player recruitment. It also held an open player ID session in October, giving aspiring players from around the region a chance to be evaluated by club staff. With the 2027 Sprint Season kicking off in February, the roster will start filling over the coming months.
Next time you drive US-131 past Pearl Street, look west and pick out the section where you’d sit. On March 19, those seats will be filled, and a team that hasn’t signed a single player yet will walk out onto the pitch taking shape right now.
