Pro soccer team enters long-term contract with city, schools.

The Dayton Dutch Lions professional soccer team has taken a major step in leaving a permanent footprint in Dayton.

The Dutch Lions last week entered into a long-term contract with West Carrollton City Schools and the City of West Carrollton in a deal that will upgrade the West Carrollton All-Sports Stadium and provide a permanent home for the Dutch Lions pro teams as well as their academies.

“This is huge,” Dutch Lions coach Ivar van Dinteren said. “West Carrollton is really happy because we don’t view this as just a partnership, but we have the same ambitions with our players and players in the academy as they have with their students.”

The Dutch Lions played their first two seasons at Bellbrook High School. The squad — and the women’s team — will begin play at West Carrollton in the 2012 season.

Under the first phase, scheduled to begin in January 2012, the Dutch Lions will put in four top grass fields to European standards, which includes thin grass cut short.

Phase two, which van Dinteren says will be done by their kickoff next season, is putting artificial turf down in the current stadium.

Phase three, which hasn’t been scheduled, is to renovate the current stadium.

“We looked at four things we needed to succeed and one of them was having our own facility,” van Dinteren said. “We are investing in their facility and will be able to use it for the Dutch Lions as well as our academies.”

The facility could be a perfect fit for the Dutch Lions, with easy access from Interstate 75 and room for them to grow. In addition to the four fields the organization will build and care for under phase one, there also is additional land outlined that it could build on in the future.

By John Cummings, Contributing Writer