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Community

North Marin Sports Complex

North Marin is in desperate need of a multi-field, multi-use sports complex. The schools with enough space to rent fields do not always maintain them. By the middle of a typical soccer season, conditions range from barely adequate to dangerous. A community-supported sports complex is the solution.

by Cameron Tinsler on May 24th, 2014, 3:19 pm PDT. This Ivia has been viewed 4,717 times. Last improved on June 25th, 2014, 6:01 pm PDT.

In Novato, many of the elementary schools rent fields to the Novato Youth Soccer League.  While seemingly good in theory--schools raise some money and the NYSL gets lots of space for practices and games--it is not working well in practice (pun intended).  Rancho and Pleasant Valley schools, for example, lease the fields for two-to-three hours per day Monday-Thursday for practices and about five hours per day Saturdays and Sundays.  Add on school-day and neighborhood usage and there's very little time for the fields to recover.

By mid-season high-traffic sections of the fields are bare dirt.  Gophers, moles, and zealous soccer players have riddled the field with furrows and holes.  Coaches have to scout pieces of field that are safe for the players.

A community-sponsored or for-profit sports complex may be the solution.  A central location with a half-dozen lighted, well-maintained fields--or even high quality artificial turf would be a huge improvement.

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Cameron Tinsler
Novato, California, United States

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Zachary Adam Zell 9 years ago

What do you assume would be the going rate a facility could charge per customer?

Edited 9 years ago

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Cameron Tinsler 9 years ago

Hard to say.  It would depend on whether the operator was a non-profit or a business.  In fact, they key would be whether this was run by a city or county using land it already owned (possibly in partnership with a non-profit).  I'd guess land is too expensive for a private enterprise to start from scratch.