What used to be a charred, vacant corner of East Tacoma where Gault Middle School once stood is now packed with goals, turf and floodlights. After years of sitting empty and catching fire more than once, the site has been reborn as a public soccer complex featuring two turf pitches, field lighting and an adjacent learning space.
The new facility, officially called Visa Street Soccer Park, opened this spring through a partnership between the Puyallup Tribe, Tacoma Public Schools and national sponsors Visa, Street Soccer USA and Bank of America. Organizers say the project is meant to pull double duty as a neighborhood hangout and a regional training hub, with adaptive features built in so blind soccer can be played at a competitive level.
According to a release from the Puyallup Tribe, the park sits on the northeast corner of the old Gault property, tucked next to Tacoma Public Schools’ planned IDEA campus. The Tribe’s Language and Culture departments named the site wələx̌ʷildubutali, which translates to “place to make yourself strong,” and that name is prominently displayed at the park.
Tacoma Public Schools notes that Gault was built in 1926 and closed in 2009, then sat in limbo for years. A 2022 fire followed by an arson in January 2024 left the old building beyond repair, and the district says those incidents sped up plans to clear the site and convert it for school and community use.
The News Tribune reports the district put about $465,000 into the field project. District spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy told the paper that Street Soccer USA will handle ongoing maintenance of the park. Local officials have framed the whole effort as a way to swap out a long-standing neighborhood headache for daily programming and youth-focused opportunities.
District planning documents describe two Bank of America-branded pitches surfaced with professional-grade turf and ringed with LED lighting. The fields can be combined into one larger pitch for tournaments and special events. The layout was intentionally designed to leave space for regulation blind-soccer panels, allowing the complex to serve as a regional training base for the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes while still functioning as an everyday multipurpose playfield for nearby residents.
World Cup Momentum Meets Eastside History
The Tacoma park is one piece of Visa’s broader Visa Street Soccer Parks initiative, which has committed to building parks in every U.S. host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. As outlined by Visa, the idea is to leave something more permanent than a few weeks of matches, with parks that pair fields, learning centers and community programming so the World Cup buzz turns into long-term local benefit.
Programming On Deck And What Comes Next
Day-to-day programming at the East Tacoma fields will be led by Street Soccer USA in collaboration with the Puyallup Tribe, RAVE Foundation, Sounders FC and Reign FC, according to the Tribe’s release. Organizers said construction on the pitches wrapped up in late May, and the grand opening was held last Thursday as part of regional World Cup celebrations, a timeline that matches the event listing from Seattle FWC26.
The News Tribune also notes that Street Soccer USA is set to manage upkeep and programming going forward, giving the former Gault site a new routine: less smoke, more soccer.
