The Performance Indoor Training+ facility finally opened Saturday with thousands of people going through the facility all day.[/caption]

Performance Indoor Training+, a 56,000-square-foot indoor and outdoor soccer facility at 7255 Meadow Hill Drive, opened Saturday with hundreds of families in attendance.

The facility opened early for teams to begin competing throughout the day. Food trucks were lined up, and guests entered to win prizes. Autographed balls and jerseys by FC Dallas players were also given out.

“It’s been a two-year process, and we’re finally here,” co-owner James Meese said. “Somewhere between my son playing, it hit me all at once, ‘Oh man, we’re really open.’ We’re very excited and glad we’re in Frisco. I don’t have all the words right now because we’ve been so concentrated in getting this open.”

The soccer facility was originally supposed to open in April but was pushed back to May 30, Meese said. However, with the recent storms they had to push the opening back to June.

The facility includes two indoor turf fields, two indoor futsal fields (a variant of soccer that is played with five-man teams), two outdoor soccer fields, two outdoor sand soccer pits and one outdoor futsal field. The facility will also include a Soccer Robotic Training Center, which is a simulator that shoots soccer balls at an athlete to relay into an illuminated target.

The outdoor fields will not be ready for another few weeks because the ground is too wet to lay down the turf.

“In a facility like this and the technology put in here, not only in the United States but internationally it’s going to be known as a technology soccer center, and I think that’s huge,” Meese said.

He said people from different teams including international teams have said ThePIT+ might be a top five soccer facility in the country.

“I think that speaks to what we’re trying to do to get soccer players to the next level,” Meese said.

Meese also said the city of Frisco has been a big supporter in helping ThePIT+ move forward. The Frisco Economic Development Corporation helped fund the project.

FEDC President James Gandy said ThePIT+ is the first big commercial project the city has done to his knowledge.

“This is an incredible asset to Frisco and it further extends the whole sports industry in Frisco,” Gandy said.