While Prince George is known around the province around soccer circles for its top-notch outdoor facilities at Rotary Field, one of the most baffling questions is why those fields aren't used by youth soccer leagues in July and August.
Go by the fields in summer and you might see the odd rep team practicing but once the seven-week spring session is over, the majority of the kids in the 2,500-player Prince George Youth Soccer Association have to wait until September to get back on those fields.
The PGYSA has operated its house leagues at Rotary Field with a two-month summer break ever since the facility opened on city-owned land in 2001. The current seven-week spring season that started last week will end June 21 and will resume for three weeks in September after Labour Day.
A proposal to offer a 10-week continuous season that would carry into the first week of July was turned down in a poll of the membership by a narrow margin. Members were divided, some saying they prefer having July and August off for holidays, while others said they won't be leaving the city in the summer and prefer to watch their kids playing outside on the fields when it's warmer.
"We're split 50-50 on that right now," said PGYSA executive director Len McNamara, who for various reasons favours operating the leagues in July rather than September.
"There is a major increased cost in September because we use lights [for night games], which we wouldn't have to use in July," he said. "We have field issues, the wear and tear that goes on in September comes back and bites us next season and it would seem natural you would put your heavy usage in July when the grass is still growing. July and August can handle heavier wear and tear but during two of the best growing months we don't have anything on there.
"People have soccer more on their minds I think in July than they do in September and while they're playing May and June, why not continue to play. The nicest part is you can go down to the field and it's not raining or blowing, you're generally going to experience some pretty good weather, and we give that up."
The PGYSA Future Stars program runs through mid-July. The Timberwolves rep team program continues through the summer months, as does the Whitecaps Northern Academy. But kids who are not part of those programs will have to find another place to play during that time. The gate to Rotary Field is locked to the public during the summer and none of the 11 fields will be accessible for informal pickup games for neighbourhood kids.
"That's been brought up here, and we do have some issues as far as the city saying to us, can you get people off the field, and we're trying to put more stuff on it," said McNamara. "I don't know how we would monitor that but if there was a way of doing that [opening a field to the public] I would think we would try to accommodate it. I guess what the problem would be, because we have some of the best fields, as soon as you open it you might have kids who want to have a football practice on it. If there's a whole bunch of people on it, does it get overused?
"If it's just a few kids who want to kick around on the field, I have no problem that our fields could handle it, but how do we administer it? Maybe PGYSA could open a field at a certain time and the nets will be there."
