Michigan Burn
Tax status: unknown — no 501(c)(3) Form 990 located on ProPublica under “Michigan Burn,” “Burn Soccer,” or “Sports Academy Chesterfield.” Club may operate as for-profit (LLC) under The Sports Academy, or as a nonprofit below the Form 990 reporting threshold.
Overview
Michigan Burn is a youth soccer club founded in 2006 and headquartered at The Sports Academy in Chesterfield, Michigan (Macomb County, in the New Baltimore / I-94 corridor northeast of Detroit). The club self-describes as an “independent” organization, meaning it is not part of a multi-club platform or franchise network. Programs span developmental ages (U6–U10 “Little Burners” / “Ignite Academy”) through full competitive teams U11+ on both boys and girls sides. The club’s marketing tagline is “Ignite your passion. Let it Burn.”
Financials
(LOW confidence — no public Form 990 located.) A search of the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer returned no matches under “Michigan Burn,” “Burn Soccer,” or related The Sports Academy / Chesterfield variations. This is consistent with one of three structures:
- The club operates as a for-profit LLC tied to The Sports Academy facility ownership.
- The club is a nonprofit but reports under a parent or differently-named legal entity.
- The club is a nonprofit below the $50K Form 990 filing threshold (unlikely given the club’s facility scale and competitive program scope).
The most plausible explanation given the facility footprint is structure #1 — a for-profit operating model in which the club and the host facility share an ownership group. This requires confirmation from Michigan LARA business registration records.
Teams & Players
Specific team count and player count are not published. The club fields teams across U6 through approximately U19 on both boys and girls sides and competes at multiple levels (state, regional, and national league). A standalone “Michigan Burn Ignite Academy” handles U6–U10 development under a dedicated coordinator.
League Affiliations
- ECNL Regional League — Greater Michigan Alliance (founding member, 2025–26 season)
- MYSL (Michigan Youth Soccer League)
- MSPSP
- Directors Academy
- E64RL (East 64 Regional League, MLS NEXT-adjacent regional structure)
- NLC (National League Conferences)
- UWS (United Women’s Soccer — semi-pro women’s league; the club fielded a UWS women’s team)
The breadth of league participation — state, regional, national, semi-pro, and ECNL-RL — is unusually wide for a club at this market tier and reflects an explicit strategy of providing pathways at every level rather than concentrating on a single elite track.
Facilities
Co-located at The Sports Academy in Chesterfield, MI. Facility specifications:
- 52,000 sq ft indoor turf (full-size + adjacent training surfaces)
- 90,000 sq ft lighted artificial turf (outdoor)
- 90,000 sq ft natural grass fields
This is a substantial physical footprint for a youth-focused club — comparable to platform-tier facilities. The “headquartered at The Sports Academy” framing suggests Michigan Burn does not directly own the building; the relationship between the soccer club and the facility’s underlying owner (whether common ownership, anchor-tenant lease, or arms-length lease) is not publicly disclosed.
Leadership
- Joe Gallagher — President, Founder, and Director of Coaching (since 2006 founding); USSF National C and D licenses; 25+ years club coaching
- Christian Graczyk — Technical Director (since 2009); USSF National B/C/D licenses, NSCAA Director of Coaching Diploma; concurrently ODP 2006 Girls Head Coach
- Nicole Niksa — Michigan Burn Ignite Academy Director and U6–U10 Player Development Coordinator (since 2023)
- Coaching staff: Rachel Clouse, Jeremy Teltow, Jarrod Murphy, Ehab Hassan, Chris Ancona
The founder-owner-coach concentration in Joe Gallagher (President + Founder + DOC for 20 years) is structurally typical of a closely-held competitive club in Michigan and suggests succession planning is a relevant question for the next decade.
Industry Context
Michigan Burn occupies the same Macomb County corridor as Nationals SC (HQ Shelby Township) and is a peer-tier club to other Michigan independents like Plymouth Reign and Waza FC. Its 2025 ECNL-RL Greater Michigan Alliance founding membership places it in the upper competitive tier of Michigan clubs without ECNL or MLS NEXT flag-level status. The Sports Academy facility footprint — over 230,000 sq ft of combined indoor and outdoor playing surface — is meaningfully larger than what a typical $1–2M revenue club operates and suggests either club-affiliated facility ownership or a long-term anchor-tenant arrangement that materially shapes the club’s economics. Independence from any consolidator platform (the club explicitly emphasizes “independent” and “without reliance on any ‘elite platform’” in its marketing) is a deliberate positioning choice in a Michigan market where MLS NEXT and ECNL flag clubs sit above the ECNL-RL tier.
Open Questions
- Legal entity structure — for-profit LLC, nonprofit, or unincorporated association?
- Ownership of The Sports Academy facility and any common ownership with the club
- Player count, team count, tuition structure
- College placement track record
- Relationship dynamics with Nationals SC in the same county (competitive overlap or complementary positioning)
- Succession plan for founder-DOC Joe Gallagher