Call it a public-private partnership borne out of necessity: Roanoke City needs dedicated soccer fields but a tight budget makes that difficult at this time…while the Roanoke Star travel soccer club needs land for dedicated fields. So parks and recreation has worked out a deal with the Star program, headed up by director Danny Beamer.
Roanoke Star Soccer Club (RSSC) will raise more than two million dollars to build five full-size soccer fields and one junior field on land it will lease from Roanoke City at the new Countryside Park. It was formerly a golf course, so there is plenty of land available.
The fields can also be turned into 11 junior-sized pitches for younger players. “The club is doing all the development,” noted Beamer. RSSC has already raised close to a million dollars towards the two million-plus goal.
Beamer said this deal came together just as another long-term arrangement RSSC had with Roanoke County at Vinyard Park comes to an end this year after two decades.
Earlier this week Roanoke Star staff members (not to be confused with this newspaper) and city officials held a “kick off” ceremony at Countryside Park. Beamer hopes that by the fall of 2015 they are ready to start playing on those fields, “if everything goes right.”
Initial construction includes installation of an irrigation system, fencing and wiring for lighting – close to a million dollars right there said Beamer. Lighting, already approved by the city, will be added during Phase 2 of the RSSC construction plan.
One field will eventually be covered with synthetic turf (that’s Phase 3), so it could be used for lacrosse or rec. football, but the general idea is that these playing fields will be used by the Star, considered the area’s elite travel program, and by recreation soccer leagues when RSSC does not have matches or practices scheduled there. “The city will be given “X” amount of hours during their fall season to use them,” said Beamer, who also owns the Soccer Stop store.
Based on the number of recreation league soccer players typically signed up in Roanoke, Beamer said there should be 20 designated rectangular fields available for soccer only. “The city has none – there’s a desperate need for soccer fields.” He said the numbers are growing as far as youth interested in playing the game. The fields at River’s Edge are also used for youth football and soon may be used for lacrosse, Beamer noted.
Beamer, who has sent several players overseas to Europe so they can continue their development, sees this deal with the city at Countryside as a possible public-private model that others can emulate. “This is really the first time the city [has done this]; I think you’ll see more and more of it because they’re taking money away from parks and recreation…somehow in some way we’ve got to get facilities [built].”
RSSC, which developed Vinyard 2 under a similar agreement with Roanoke County, will rent those fields after their long term lease expires at the end of this month – until the Countryside complex is up and running.
“We’re always looking for fields,” said Beamer, noting that the RSSC will also develop four new full pitches at Botetourt County’s Greenfield Center. “There’s a desperate need for [dedicated] soccer fields,” he said, stressing that other travel clubs won’t come here unless the pitches they are to play on are top-notch.
– Gene Marrano
