Goals targets 2 million LA ‘soccer’ players as US expansion continues

East Kilbride-based five-a-side football venue specialist Goals Soccer Centres has said its ambitious American expansion plans are progressing strongly.

The company already operates one venue in Los Angeles and is set to open a second with work on the facility starting before the end of the year.

And buoyed by its Californian performance plans for three more US sites are in the pipeline.

Confidence is being taken from like-for-like sales at the Los Angeles venue which increased by 20 per cent over the six months to the end of June.

But it wasn’t all good news in the company’s latest trading update with UK like-for-like sales falling by 2 per cent.

The company cited “some softness in the casual market” and poor weather for the disappointing results.

It added that trading strengthened during the second quarter, but not sufficiently to fully recover the shortfall recorded in the previous three months.

Overall group sales for the period were in line with last year at £17.1m.

The group, which now operates 46 venues in the UK, opened new centres in Manchester and Doncaster in the first half of the year.

Construction is due to start on another UK centre in the second half of 2015.

But it is across the pond that Goals believes there is rich potential to grow its business, particularly in the LA area where there are an estimated two million players, making it the second biggest football market in the US.

That conviction is only likely to be strengthened by the increasing profile of soccer in the US, thanks to factors such as Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard signing for LA Galaxy and the recent victory of the US team in the Women’s World Cup in Canada.

Goals managing director Keith Rogers said: “Our UK performance, against some tough comparatives, has been slightly below our expectations.

“However, we are very encouraged by the ongoing strength in US trading which supports our development programme in the Los Angeles area.”

Goals also highlighted the continuing take-up of its mobile app, noting that total downloads are now in excess of 30,000 and growing on a weekly basis.

Among the app’s most used features is the player blast, which has helped reduce cancellations by helping teams find players who are “up for a game”.