SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Mt. Pleasant's Fight

If MPSC is censored from putting stuff on their own private website (yes, MPSC is a private club seperate from the Rec. Dept.) then after they got denied more fields they will be buried in the hierarchy for bringing this issue to light in such a strong manner. It's a Good 'Ol Boy Democracy in Mt. Pleasant that loves its baseball and football.

When I think of how much money I have spent at various soccer venues over the past few years, it should be a no brainer for communities to build soccer fields. Yet the message doesn't seem to get out. It's time to start thinking about some sort of centralized public relations and lobbying effort to get the message out about the economic impact of soccer. I'm sure that SCYSA does some work on this front, but I'm talking about a stepped up effort. The politics of it are complicated, because inevitable debates will arise over whose fields are going to be funded. However, we can't deny the universal problem that state and local governments, in general, do not have a clue about the potential financial impact of club soccer on their communities.

How did the meeting go last night in Mt. Pleasant?

The meeting last night went well. The presentations by MPSC folks were very well done and very professional, although perhaps rushed a little bit as Gary Santos rudely interupted the speakers to remind them about their 3 minutes being up. Steve Ballentine made a great point about the decline in support for soccer in Mt P after Tom O'Rourke and Mayor Woods-Flowers left. Both Santos and Gawrych took offense to this by stating they have always been supporters of soccer. Santos and Gawrych have now both seen the light because parents are ticked off and now they realize how many voters there are out there who are upset. (For the record, you can get elected to Mt P Town Council with @ 4,000 votes) These guys are either deaf or blind if they say this is the first time they have heard about any of this. They have relied on a rec dept that has constantly told them everything is OK with soccer when for years it hasn't been. Thanks to Councilman Billy Swails, MPSC finally got this audience with elected officials that should have been paying attention ten years ago. All three councilmen asked the MPSC supporters to help if and when a bond refurendum needs to be considered. It's interesting to consider that baseball and football have been given everything they need, even to the point of excess capacity and now soccer needs to get a bond referendum passed to get up to speed. Would we need a referendum to build baseball fields at Carolina Park??

The turn out was good. A lot of kids there wearing MPSC shirts. Hopefully, something good will come of this.

To Homegrown.
Your inventory doe sno tshow the Carolina Park complex that has been approved for baseball, correct?
How many fields will that be?

wouldn't it be easier to convert the Park West baseball fields to soccer fulltime? Faster, less expensive.

I think the issue is over whether or not to build the baseball complex at Carolina Park versus getting that nixed and having a soccer complex built. So Carolina Park baseball wouldn't be included in the count.

Homegrown's post of 9/27 only includes the facilities inventory as it stands right now. If Gawrych and Santos were on top of things and looking out for soccers interests as they stated last Wednesday evening, they would have made Park West a soccer specific complex. Carolina Park needs to be soccer specific. We don't need any more baseball fields because the ones we have right now aren't being used to capacity. The town's "plan" calls for four new baseball fields with soccer played in the outfield areas. The propsal I saw didn't look like it included even one full size 100'x80' field. It had multiple fields overlapping each other in the outfield. Swimmer2 your idea about converting the Park West fields is an excellent idea and way too practical. Santos & Gawrych would never give up baseball fields even though that would still leave them with 14.

Does the Rec. Dept. submitt report to town council regarding participation numbers. The numbers for soccer were overwhelming for soccer, yet the council acted like this was the first time they were hearing this. Do anybody know what the Rec. Dept. has been reporting?