THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507010122
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
The Hampton Roads Soccer Council is moving ahead with plans to build a 14- to 18-field complex in Princess Anne Park, beginning this fall.
Next week the city's Planning Commission will consider a conditional use permit application from the soccer council to proceed with construction. The application also will need a final OK from the City Council.
Michael Barrett, president of the soccer council, said the organization has accumulated $900,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to move ahead with construction of at least 10 fields.
Building should start sometime in October to coincide with the extension of Recreation Drive. The complex will be located at the end of Recreation Drive near the planned amphitheater.
The soccer complex plan was approved by the council in 1993. The council agreed to a 20-year lease of a portion of Princess Anne Park to the soccer group headed by Barrett.
At the time, Barrett said his organization needed $2.5 million to complete the project. Most of the money would be in the form of contributions. A fund-raising campaign got under way and will continue until the the complex is finished.
Initially, plans for the soccer complex included a $1.5-million stadium for tournament play.
Since then things have changed, said Barrett. The soccer council was able to convince the Virginia Beach School Board to build a tournament-caliber soccer stadium at Ocean Lakes High School, when that facility was being built.
``We no longer need a big field like that,'' Barrett said. ``We'll have a championship field at Ocean Lakes. We've accomplished that goal.''
The lease agreement with the city requires the soccer group to stage at least four major tournaments a year at the Princess Anne Park complex. Provisions would allow public use of the fields when not occupied by soccer council teams.
Local organizers already host a highly successful Columbus Day soccer tournament early in October. The program brings in more than 250 youth teams from the Eastern Seaboard. They also sponsor a Hampton Roads Girls Soccer Association tournament, which will field 120 teams in the second week of November. The group also hosts the Atlantic Labor Day soccer tournament in September.
All the tournaments are a boon to the local tourism industry, Barrett insists.
Teams are generally accompanied by families who make a weekend outing of the events. Families and friends - as well as teams - stay at local hotels, eat at local restaurants and shop at local stores.
``We bring in more room nights by far than anybody else - 40,000 in Virginia Beach and Norfolk,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photos by PETER D. SUNDBERG
ABOVE: Local organizers already host a highly successful Columbus
Day soccer tournament early in October. The program brings in more
than 250 youth teams from the Eastern Seaboard. RIGHT: Assistant
coach Al Rainbolt gives goalie Jeff Mangat a hand with his
equipment. Rainbolt coaches the Kirkwood soccer club, the Lasers, in
Wilmington, Del.
by CNB