When it comes to youth soccer tournaments you can argue about who is the best, but not who is the biggest. The Schwan’s USA Cup takes the prize.

With close to 1,000 teams in concurrent events in July, played on 45 fields at the National Sports Center in suburban Minneapolis, the USA Cup is just plain massive.

Colleen Bourdon, Director of Team Relations for the event, said application figures are tracking with or just ahead of last year’s numbers. The event features competition for boys and girls from age groups U9 to U18/19. Participants range from competitive teams to more recreationally-oriented sides, and from Minnesota teams to more than 100 teams from around the world, including Japan, Germany and Brazil.

Bourdon said the tournament field is arranged via a two-part process, with an initial pairing made by staff and then a resorting of the field made as soccer experts go through an update with team coaches to account for changes over the course of the year.

“What makes USA Cup so cool is that you can be a rec team, rec plus, Classic 3 or an international team and still have a good experience,” she said. “It covers the whole spectrum. That’s what I love about it. It’s not just for the elite player.”

Each age group has at least two flights, with equipment sponsor Puma now adding an additional top division for some age groups. Flight size ranges from 16 for the weekend even (July 17-19) to the weeklong event (July 21-25).

Tournament director Teri Vogt said more than 1,000 local volunteers are the heartbeat of the event.

“It’s one of the phenomenons about the USA Cup. The volunteers are broken down into different categories. There’s the opening ceremony, the referees, the field services, a medical group, even an airport greeting committee just so people have a good impression when they arrive in Minnesota,” Vogt said. “The volunteer support is amazing. Really everything but the waivers and bean counting is done by volunteers.”

Vogt added that the volunteer effort is fueled in large by sponsors, with Puma providing a coveted uniform including shorts, shirt, jacket and shoes for what she termed “killer” volunteers.

“Their gear is so hip and cool it makes people volunteer just so they can get it,” she said with a laugh. “People will have it on and other people will be like ‘Where did you get that!’”

Vogt said Schwan’s is another favored sponsor, with their signature brand of ice cream a staple of volunteer sustenance during the week, as evidenced by the occasional radio traffic of “I didn’t get my ice cream” heard from volunteers.

But there is more room for sponsors.

“You could put your name into a program book or have a booth in a vendor area that we operate,” she said. “You can help the tournament for anywhere from $500 to thousands of dollars. It’s a very worthwhile effort.”

Vogt added that the crew begins working on the event approximately 16 months ahead of time, meaning they are now preparing for the 2010 event, even as they sort out final details for this summer.