Club president Steve Campbell made his appeal to city council’s community services committee earlier this week.
“The soccer club in Summerside is the third largest club by about five people,” Campbell said. “It stills continues growing every year. We’re representing approximately 650 players which makes it one of the largest sports bodies within the city.”
Campbell said the one difficult the organization has and will continue to have is field space.
“Now we rely on the city facility, turf fields, we rely on the newly created field at Credit Union Place and then we go down to the school board’s (fields),” he said. “With the growth of the sport we’re trying to respect the fields and not over use them and over work them so that in a year’s time we can’t play on them, we’re constantly trying to look for areas that can replace fields and a place for the kids to play.”
Campbell last fall the ballpark at Lefurgey Park was removed and the area became a prime site for a soccer field.
He said the organization made inquiries into the availability of space in the park for a soccer field and approached the city.
“The reason that location would work extremely well is that there are already an existing bathroom facility on the site,” he said. “There is park space for families to come with their kids while their older sister or brother plays soccer. It’s a really good fit for our sport.”
Campbell said although there are homes close by, soccer is not a loud sport and soccer balls tend to stay within the confines of the fields and don’t end up on neighhbouring property.
“Our request is that we be allowed to use a portion of that land and to create what would be an Under 12 size soccer field,” he said. “It’s not a massive area, about 73 metres by 45 metres or in that range. The question that I would pose to council is if they see merit in allowing us to use what we need to create the space.”
Campbell said the organization would absorb all the costs for preparing the field and the only money the city may have to put in would be to the bathrooms if any work were required to make them operable.
Councillor Tyler DesRoches said parking could be a concern and work should be done to ensure there is adequate space for vehicles at the park but that people living next to the park have no difficulty with the proposed soccer field.
Council wants to get input from area residents about the plan to make sure the public support is there before making a decision.
Council agreed with the concept in principle and directed community services staff to come back with a recommendation at the May 19 city council meeting.
