Saratoga News

News

Miller clarifies points made in Kevin Moran Park article

By Jason Sweeney

A lot gets said in public hearings whenever Kevin Moran Park shows up on the Saratoga City Council's agenda. AYSO regional commissioner Howard Miller wants to clarify a few things that were said at a June 7 meeting of the council that were then repeated in the Saratoga News.

Statements were made by neighbors of Kevin Moran Park that youth soccer is a "profit-making business." Other statements were made claiming four out of five children who would be using a new field at Kevin Moran Park would be from out of town. Miller said that those statements are "grossly incorrect."

AYSO is a national organization and one of the largest youth sports organizations in the country, with hundreds of thousands of players, coaches and referees, but it is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization run mainly by local volunteers. The AYSO national office does have 50 paid employees, however. CYSA is smaller in scope, but is also a nonprofit organization.

"Nobody's making a dime on youth soccer in this city, except maybe the people selling uniforms," Miller said. "It's not a profit-making business. It's not a for-profit business. It's a for-kid business. In my league, I have 800 volunteers, and nobody gets a dime, including me.

"Pretty much there is always going to be a Saratoga team that will be a home team on that field," Miller said. "Of that home team, at least 90 percent of the players are from Saratoga. And 80 percent of the time, it's two Saratoga teams playing if it's AYSO."

In an email to the Saratoga News, AYSO national management commission chairman Mark Linsky said more than 350 Saratoga residents were registered and playing with CYSA. And of about 1,200 Saratoga AYSO children, 90 percent are Saratoga residents.

On May 10, the city council voted 4-1 at the final meeting of the Kevin Moran Park Task Force for a development plan for the park that included a 330-by-195-foot soccer field along with several other elements. The city's design consultant then reviewed the plan for workability. The reviewed design was presented to the city council before a packed council chambers the night of June 7. Arguments for and against a soccer field at Kevin Moran Park were rehashed at the meeting, with park neighbors arguing against a full-sized soccer field and soccer advocates arguing for one. After some alterations were made to the reviewed design, the council voted 4-1 to approve a tentative plan that included the full-sized soccer field in the north quarter of the park. Mayor Norman Kline cast the dissenting vote on both May 10 and June 7. Kline favors practice fields at the park and not a regulation playing field.

Opposition to a playing field by neighbors has remained fierce ever since a soccer field was first proposed. Neighbors worry about traffic congestion, noise and a loss of the park's quiet ambience if regulation soccer games are allowed there.

After the recent defeat of Measure J in the June 7 election that resulted in the nullification of the sale of the city's North Campus property to a developer, there is speculation neighbors may try to hold a referendum on the city's decision to build a soccer field at Kevin Moran Park. Miller said demographics are in his favor if a referendum were ever held. He said he is confident that voters would support a regulation soccer field.