The club features more than a dozen teams for players from under 9 years old to under 19, plays. Players practice at Frank Nelson Park, off
“It’s like ‘Field of Dreams,’ “ Club President Tessi Goichoechea said. “If you build it they will come.”
Economic development is part of Bay United’s pitch to the city.
The large field is divided by a blue concession stand and equipment shed but does not have any discernable lines, only identified as a soccer facility by the rectangular goals strewn about the premises. The field was converted from softball and baseball diamonds. There are still familiar remnants of those uses, patches of sand where pitching mounds once stood. Patchy is a worthy descriptor of many parts of the field. The city does provide irrigation but the system was designed for baseball and softball, providing water just for former outfields.
“We’re playing on sand. Why are we coming here?” Goichoechea said was one of the responses from a team that attended one of the club’s non-competitive tournaments for younger age groups.
Where there is grass, it is dry and matted, easily catching wayward cleats. Hidden on the ground are small spiky stickers, bringing extra pain for players who fall. Central midfielder Madi Flammia, 13, said her team has to be careful where they sit down to stretch for this reason.
All of this contributes to how cleanly Bay United teams can play. Flammia said at a recent practice coaches decided to ignore many bad first touches, citing the uneven playing surface as the reason.
“The quality of the facility has a lot to do with generating more players,” Director of Coaching Marek Betkowski said. “It’s one of many reasons people want to join the club.”
The club has successful coaches. Betkowski hails from
Bay United has had many successful teams, three finishing in the final four of a national competition. Flammia’s U-15 squad went to the elite eight in a state competition last season and the year before competed at a national championship tournament in
At its March 25, the City Commission approved paying for a $73,000 design plan from McNeil Carroll Engineering for the field. Those plans include field surface improvements, a deep-water well for irrigation and some replacement lights. The fences around the field would be moved back to
Goichoechea said the soccer club hopes the City Commission allocates $800,000 over two years for the field. Leisure Services Director Keith Baker said that no funds have been budgeted for the park beyond what was already approved.
Baker said he has discussed the possibility of the club applying for grants for the improvements.
Goichoechea said there are two organizations that would supply the club grants: U.S. Soccer Foundation and the Florida Youth Soccer Association. To qualify for any grants from FYSA and a field grant with U.S. Soccer, Bay United would either have to own the field or have a long-term lease of at least 10 years. Bay United’s current lease with the city is for four years. Bay United would qualify for a lighting grant worth as much as $50,000 with U.S. Soccer.
Regardless, Goichoechea said the earliest anything could happen to the field would be the beginning of the next fiscal year, Oct. 1.
The City Commission should have its first budget meeting in about two weeks, Budget Officer Brandy Waldron said.