For years, the Huntsville Soccer Club (HSC) has done what it could to improve the number and quality of playing fields for its members, says club president Dave Caplan. It raised funds for and built two new soccer fields at McCulley Robertson Recreation Park, and then turned them over to the Town. Recognizing that the Town would have to maintain them, the club agreed to pay rental fees for their use.
It paid for architectural drawings and began applying for permits to build a clubhouse at McCulley Robertson in 2013, an effort that stalled when the idea for a new multi-use sport facility was floated around.
In 2015, the club tried to get approval for lights at the artificial turf field at Conroy Park so that its rep teams could practice earlier and later in the season when training is often interrupted because night comes too quickly. Despite an offer to contribute to the cost of traditional lighting, the Town insisted on LED lighting and balked at the almost $300,000 cost presented by Town staff. (See Conroy Sports’ Field will remain in the dark for more.)
And, in 2016, the club identified that their field space was again at a premium, in part due to increasing membership and in part due to a new teaching methodology mandated by Soccer Canada that required the use of grids of various sizes in addition to appropriately sized soccer fields for games. It approached the Town with a proposal to build a new soccer field near the existing ball diamonds, again offering to contribute to the cost, but following the presentation of a field-usage study by Town staff they were again turned down.
So when club members read that the aging baseball diamonds at McCulley Robertson could get a $2.2 million redevelopment, paid for by the Town, there was resentment among club members, Caplan told councillors at the September 26 General Committee meeting.
Related:
Two-million dollar upgrade proposed for McCulley-Robertson ball diamonds
Council sends $2.2M ball diamond redevelopment discussions back to committee
“I’m not here to dispute the needs of baseball community,” said Caplan. “I fully support the requirements they have for their programs… The soccer club is the largest youth sports group in Huntsville and we feel we’ve been a good partner in the community and with the Town. Whenever we request facilities or have brought forth a proposal, we are always coming to the table with money in hand to limit the costs to the citizens of Huntsville. All that we would ask for is that you consider the soccer club’s needs when deciding to move forward with the ball diamond redevelopment.”
Caplan outlined the soccer club’s current priorities: field development at McCulley Robertson, lights at Conroy Park, and a clubhouse.
He said that if redevelopment of the ball diamonds goes ahead, it would make sense to do field work at the same time to save on construction costs, and added that the club would be willing to pay part of the cost. He also asked that if the lights on the ball diamonds are replaced, that the old lights be moved to the nearby soccer fields—while they would still like to have lights installed at the Conroy Park field, Caplan said, they could run fall programs later at McCulley Robertson with lights on those fields and reusing the old lights from the ball diamonds would be a cost-effective means of doing so.
“Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about value for your buck,” said Caplan. “I will not dispute that the ball diamond redevelopment is overdue and needed. However, for $2.2 million you could build an indoor turf facility attached to the curling club’s proposed multi-use facility. This field house would allow for all new forms of revenue for the Town as not only soccer would utilize the facility but so would lacrosse, the area schools, ultimate Frisbee, and more. Even baseball previously indicated their desire for an indoor turf facility to enable winter training for their player development. I feel building an indoor turf field house would have a far greater positive impact to sports in our Town than any other sports development. It would draw people from far and wide to book the facility and you could certainly charge premium rates to cover the cost of running it.”
Mayor Scott Aitchison acknowledged the efforts the soccer club has made over the years. “When it comes to partnering with groups in the community, the soccer community is by far the best…you always come to the table with money and there are some great examples of this municipality partnering with soccer. And there’s no question that we’ve put the brakes on a lot of stuff the last four years. For many of those projects, it’s because we felt we had to to pay down our debt, build up reserves, get rid of assets that didn’t make sense for us to have and get back to basics. There were a lot of things that were put on hold and I think it’s safe to say that every person around this table choked at the number $2.2 million (for the ball diamond redevelopment) when we first saw that…”
After Caplan had clarified the club’s needs in response to questions from councillors, and following further discussion about the ball diamond redevelopment, committee decided to postpone a decision on the project in order to re-evaluate its approach to the redevelopment and to allow more time to consider the needs of other user groups at McCulley Robertson.
Related: Local group hoping to make Huntsville a mecca for disc golfers
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Rob Millman says
There are so many ancillary considerations here; within the larger decision:
1) soccer is the largest growing sport for the younger demographic in the country;
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2) for almost zero equipment, the health benefits are immense;
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3) how many younger players (beyond T-ball age and slightly older) use the ball diamonds vs. adults for slow-pitch?
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4) Canada is developing soccer players for the national program; whereas ball players are more interested in their infinitesimal chances of playing major league baseball; and
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5) the soccer group doesn’t come for hand-outs: they come with monies.
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The entire scheme needs to be reworked; instead of just considering the ball diamonds and the curling complex in isolation.
Kevin Farley says
The Evergreen Fields Disc Golf Club is looking forward to showing the town how important the disc golf course is to our club and the community as well.
Many are oblivious to its existence, and that every proposal put forward by both the soccer club and the baseball club, short of using the new fowler property option, would be to the detriment of our course. That reality is what’s pushed us to organize, to make sure we’re taken into account too!
Because our course is nestled into the natural environment it is percieved as undeveloped, but that’s not the case! We have a strong community of players, we play year round and we are activly engaged in improving the course.
We could hit every item on our wish list for under $50k, and even one tournament would inject $20k into the local economy from out of town visitors.
We’re looking forward to working with both clubs and the town to reach a solution that works for ALL of us!
https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/local-group-hoping-to-make-huntsville-a-mecca-for-disc-golfers/
Bill Beatty says
You nailed it…. There seems to be more bang for the ⚽? !