Soccer field conditions threaten season

Though it has been a successful program for many years, representatives from the Blytheville Area Soccer Association (BASA) say that they may have to consider canceling this fall's season, due to the extremely poor condition of the fields, which are supposed to be maintained by the City of Blytheville.

"The fields are in desperate need of improvement," said John Bennett, Vice President of the BASA. "Weeds have taken over. We need dirt and grass. We're having to consider canceling the season because the field is so bad full of potholes and cracks that we're concerned kids will injure themselves trying to run on it."

Technically the soccer fields, located behind the baseball fields at the Blytheville Sportsplex, are a city park, which Bennett says was gifted to BASA by former Mayor Barrett Harrison during his administration.

But Bennett said that the BASA's repeated requests for proper maintenance from the city have gone unheard.

"They should be maintaining our fields, but we get put behind baseball and Thunder Bayou," he said. "We have solicited the city for help, this should have already been done. We'be been to parks and recreation committee meetings, last year we wrote a letter to Elroy Brown, but our needs were never addressed. If it isn't weeded, filled and seeded soon there will be no season. We're in danger of disappointing a lot of kids. We'd just like to encourage people to go look at the fields and see what they think."

Brown told the CN that his department recently applied for a grant to fund the renovations of the soccer fields, but the application was denied, and that the city does not have a line item in it's parks and recreation budget for BASA.

"We can help them out with dirt, the city has a place where we can get dirt, all they have to do is call and ask me instead of stirring up trouble," said Brown. "Everybody wants their issues taken care of and I understand that, but there isn't enough money to go around. No one ever wants to address this, but when the last administration was in place, they made all these promises about what everyone would get, but we can't afford it all. Right now parks and rec brings in $700,000 a year and we spend more than that. I would love to be able to fix all these things, but they take money."

Brown did say that he would look into getting dirt and grass seed for the BASA.

Every season BASA serves around 340 children, who play eight games over a three month time period from September through November.

sspears@blythevillecourier.com