VALDOSTA —
A municipal soccer complex is in the works for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority if voters pass the seventh cycle of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax on Nov. 6.
The project has been coming down the pike for at least five years, but the Authority labels the soccer complex as its “number one priority,” said Executive Parks Director George Page.
The Authority has acquired and earmarked $3.2 million for the project, Page said, but more is needed to begin the planning phase. If SPLOST VII passes, the penny tax will fund the soccer field project in full as well as begin a baseball field project.
The Authority is still in the process of securing a site on which to build the field, and has no specific sites in mind at present.
“We’re still in the ‘search mode,’ if you will,” Page said.
The project requires between 30 and 40 acres of land at minimum, and the purchase of the land must come from SPLOST funding, said Authority Board Chairman Russell Mast.
“Every time we think we’ve found a location, it doesn’t work out like we think it does,” Mast said. “We’re working all options available.”
Those options include land donations, but many of the donors who stepped forward have since rescinded their offers, Mast said. The Authority would be “happy to discuss options” with any citizen or business wishing to donate land for the project, he said.
Valdosta needs soccer fields, say the coaches of the more than 800 youth and competitive-league soccer players who must travel out of town to hold practices and tournaments. Coaches argue that soccer fields would bring a massive consumer base to the local economy, and that in spite of this, they haven’t seen promising progress.
“They’ve been looking at land since the last SPLOST (was passed),” said Chip Harp, former South Georgia United youth soccer club board member and organizer. “We actually helped them find some locations, described to them what the complex needs to look like. Other things keep happening, and there’s a level of frustration.”
Harp believes the Authority’s “delay of action” has cost the City of Valdosta millions in money that could have come to town with the parents, coaches, children and audiences involved in youth soccer.
About $6 million a year to be exact, according to Director of Coaching Lee Blenman, and that from tournaments alone.
Not only does the soccer league serve Valdosta youth, but also kids from many other communities including Albany, Tifton, Douglas, Nashville and Hahira who more often than not meet in Tifton, which boasts a soccer complex capable of serving the league, for tournaments.
“I don’t know why we’re so far behind with soccer here,” Harp said. “I’ve been involved with the local soccer club for several years, and we’ve been trying to get something done for a soccer facility in Valdosta for a long time.”
South Georgia United “is homeless” in Valdosta, Blenman said. The league currently uses Freedom Park as well as a modified softball field and recreational park in Hahira to hold practice.
“The kids don’t complain because they play travel soccer,” Blenman said. “We don’t have decent training facilities in Valdosta. Multiple teams try to cram onto the north Lowndes skate park field out there. But there’s no guarantees we’re not going to have a confrontation when we do get there with a softball coach or softball team.”
Even when things work out with the softball coaches, the park only offers a single soccer field. Ideally, the league would hold practice at a complex with three or four fields or more, like Tifton’s soccer complex, Blenman said.
Youth soccer encompasses age groups from 4 to 18, with instructional as well as competitive teams of about 400 players each, Blenman said. Without a Valdosta facility, the league is operating at capacity.
“We don’t have the facilities to have more players participate,” Blenman said. “We can’t manage the players we’ve got.”
Blenman said the soccer community was “very excited” upon hearing the Authority's plans for a soccer facility, but that has changed to disappointment because the plan has failed to move forward.
“We manage with what we’ve got,” Blenman said.
A soccer complex would likely serve the adult soccer community as well. Blenman has been approached on numerous occasions by citizens inquiring about who to contact for adult-level soccer, but again, there aren’t facilities for another league.
Some residents find pick-up soccer games at Valdosta State University fields, Blenman admitted, but that is informal play.
“The league wouldn’t have to be huge — four co-ed teams or something like that,” Blenman said. “There are plenty of players on the Air Force base that would love to come out and play some adult soccer. It’s a great way to stay healthy.”
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