New West Baseball has come out swinging against a proposal to transform Queen’s Park Stadium into a dedicated soccer venue that would become the home pitch for a United Soccer Leagues PRO franchise.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the City of New Westminster have signed a memorandum of understanding marking their intent to look into the feasability of launching the league – a U.S. men’s professional soccer league that is just below and supports Major League Soccer – in New West.
But for Ron Suffron, president of New West Baseball, while the offer might be “sexy,” it’s not sensible.
“They are pushing this thing through for a private enterprise without knowing what it’s going to cost (the city),” Suffron said. “If we have to move out because of the Whitecaps, the Whitecaps should have to foot the bill, that’s the bottom line, without unloading it onto the taxpayer.”
Queen’s Park Stadium is one of a few fields that can accommodate evening games – an important factor in older youth sports and tournament play. It is also the only venue that can support evening skills training for the group’s Little League and B.C. Minor baseball players, according to New West Baseball.
As well, the organization has raised approximately $60,000 to make upgrades to the field, Suffron said.
“There’s a lot of kids that look up to that place as a place to play, and that’s their field of dreams,” Suffron said. “I think that’s a really good thing for the city to invest in their kids, and that’s money that you can’t put a price tag on.”
Suffron said he received a supportive email from Major League Baseball all-star player Justin Morneau, who honed his skills playing ball as a youngster in New Westminster.
The main concern for Suffron and others in New West Baseball is that they will be pushed out to make room for the soccer field.
But Dean Gibson, the City of New Westminster’s director of parks, culture and recreation, said the city contacted New West Baseball even before the proposal was announced and wants to work with the group to find a suitable alternative, if the proposal goes through.
“If there is some alternative that we need to look at to support baseball’s interest, we are willing to do that,” Gibson said. “Certainly anytime we do any projects of any significance … we work with all of our stakeholder groups. We have met with all of our community sport groups throughout the last several weeks to talk about the proposal – where the opportunities are, what the impacts might be and have taken information from them.”
The city is looking into the possibility of building a new baseball field either in Queen’s Park (behind the Queen’s Park Stadium) or in Upper Hume Park.
But Suffron said if New West Baseball is moved it will impact groups currently using the field.
“So there’s a trickle down effect that affects everybody,” he said.
He also questioned the cost of the plan to build the soccer field and update the replacement fields for baseball.
“This is going to cost a lot of money, a lot of money, millions of dollars from what I understand,” he said. “I’m not sure the local taxpayers are going to have a chance to voice their view on this, so we are going to have to give them a voice.”
Gibson said he doesn’t have a “complete answer” at this point on what it will cost the city to re-purpose the field and host the club.
“We are in that work right now,” he said. “That is what our due diligence period is, and we will be reporting all of that out through city council.”
In addition to the current Whitecaps FC ownership group, the proposed USL PRO franchise will be co-owned and operated by Ian Gillespie of Westbank Projects Corp. and New Westminster-native Gary Pooni of Brook Pooni Associates, according to the Whitecaps website. Their goal is to start the new league franchise for the next season, which starts in March 2015. In order to meet the deadline to commit to the league, they need to have a commitment from the city by the middle of September.
The city is also reviewing the benefits of hosting the soccer league and having the field, which has the support of Royal City Youth Soccer Club.
“Another piece of our work is doing an impact study that talks about (it) both from a financial, social and community development perspective,” Gibson said.
New West Baseball is holding an open house and info session at Queen's Park Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 24, from noon to 3 p.m.
