Soccer-loving North Shore parents and residents have spent years searching for a nearby indoor spot for kids (and kids at heart) to practice and play, no matter what the unpredictable Wisconsin weather throws at them. That search is over, as the MFC Sports Complex – a brand new indoor multi-sport facility, located at 4170 N. Lydell Ave. in Glendale – officially kicked off a new era of athletics in the area earlier this summer, now hosting youth league practices and beyond. 

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Located right next to the long-running Mofoco engine repair and auto shop, the idea of hosting an indoor practice field first dug its cleats into owner Roy Henning’s imagination early last year. Broached with the concept around February 2023, the youth sports coach and Milwaukee sports enthusiast originally wasn’t sure about the potential for a soccer field in his cluttered, snow-surrounded warehouse – but as the temperatures warmed, so did his feelings toward its potential. 

"For North Shore, (the indoor practice facility options) weren’t close – especially when you have a 10-year-old kid that the parents have to drive around to practice,” he explained. “Apparently groups of parents and different investment groups have been trying to find a building in the area for ten years to do an indoor facility, but nothing fit the bill. Either it was in a residential area or it had no parking. Or the building was wrong. Or all that stuff was right but the cost to rehab the building was going to be too much.”

The Mofoco warehouse, however, turned out to be just right – though turning the storage space into an indoor soccer pitch was no game. New windows and garage doors would get installed, heat as well as air conditioning were built in, a bathroom with brand new plumbing would be dug in, and 500,000 pounds of scrap metal stored inside had to be hand-loaded and recycled – all before any turf touched down inside. 

The impressive transformation, however, is now finally complete, shelves and piles of scrap now replaced with a clean and comfortable 10,000-square-foot soccer facility ready for action, rain or shine. The main room features a giant soccer field stretching to all ends of the space, with air conditioning for sweltering summer days as well as heat during the frosty winter months. The space also features garage doors to help air out the space on nice days – but even when the weather doesn’t allow things to open up, the field still feels open thanks to natural light showering in from a line of windows installed above the pitch. 

"Every indoor place you go, you feel like you’re in a box,” Henning explained. “There’s so little natural light, you always feel like you’re boxed in – so I wanted to make this feel like a really nice place where you don’t feel that way.” 

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All eyes, however, will mainly be on the field – not just because of the athletic action dribbling around on the turf but because of the turf itself. According to Henning, the MFC Sports Complex is the first indoor facility in the nation to utilize this particular system, featuring a Wave Pad impact pad underneath the green surface to help eliminate concussions from hard falls as well as a unique eco-friendly infill mixed in with the faux field that doesn’t absorb heat like the traditional black plastic pellets found on most artificial turf and is made of more natural ingredients.

"What I’ve noticed is, with that other stuff, you track it home all the time,” Henning added. “At our other practice facility, I walk down the street a good two blocks to get to my house, and still when I walk inside there’s those black pellets all over the place. But from here? Nothing.

"I play goalie, and I dove on this stuff and hit the ground hard – didn’t hurt. It’s more forgiving than playing on grass.”

Beyond the pitch, the MFC Sports Complex has a Coakley Brothers-sponsored lounge area off to the side for kids to recombobulate pregame, postgame or at the half, as well as for parents to relax in solace while the practice plays out on the turf. For those keeping an eye on the on-field action, the lounge installed a large video board too, showing a live feed of the games and gatherings breaking out on the fake grass. 

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As for what games will hit the turf, obviously soccer is the signature sport at the MFC Sports Complex, with Bavarian Soccer Club signing on as their anchor tenant for winter work and beyond. The facility, however, can play host to all sorts of sports – including lacrosse, flag football, baseball, cheerleading, general athletic training, yoga, kickball, football and beyond – at all sorts of levels. That'll start this month with one of the complex's first events: a Trenches Linemen Camp, complete with Packers greats Gilbert Brown and Santana Dotson (along with coach Johnny Bridgewater) helping teach potential future football players, hosted July 30 through Aug. 1. 

For less serious sporting fun, the MFC Sports Complex will also focus on hosting birthday parties, utilizing the field for casual games of soccer, Nerf gun wars, gaga ball and more, as well as the lounge for other festivities. 

“It’s private,” Henning noted, about birthday reservations. “You’re not waiting in lines with other kids; you’re not standing at the snack shack wading through a bunch of other parents and kids. It’s all yours for two hours, and you can do whatever you want.”

While the MFC Sports Complex is just a few months old, Henning already has ideas on how to grow the fun and frivolity beyond the brand new field as well – including outdoor events, like viewing parties for big soccer games and football matchups, hosted in the facility’s parking lot.  

"It’s gonna be fun,” Henning said. 

To start kicking it at the MFC Sports Complex, interested parties big and small, season-long and single-day, can email info@mfcsportscomplex.com. Online reservations and more information are also available at the official website.