20-field soccer plan scores first goal

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 1999 | 9:55 a.m.

A proposed 20-field soccer complex won a face-off with the Las Vegas City Council's Real Estate Committee on Monday and could head to negotiations with the state if its plan is approved Wednesday by the full council.

The nonprofit Las Vegas Premier Soccer Club Inc. will ask the City Council to enter into a lease agreement to build a $12.9 million soccer complex on 100 acres of Bureau of Land Management property between Summerlin Parkway and Washington Avenue, stretching from Buffalo to Durango drives.

Dr. Gary Marrone, president of Premier Soccer's board of directors, told Councilman Gary Reese that the facility is needed in the field-strapped region.

"The state of soccer in Nevada is nowhere near what it is in the rest of the United States," Marrone said.

When completed, the 20-field complex will include an 8,000-seat soccer stadium, two playground areas, several restroom facilities and parking.

Under terms of the proposal, the city would lease the land to Premier Soccer for 50 years. At the end of that lease, the land and its improvements would become city property.

The city is also being asked to spend about $1.9 million in off-site improvements to spark the $12.9 million developers will spend.

The facility, if it is completed, would be large enough to host U.S. Youth Soccer Association tournaments. When the center is coupled with a planned soccer complex nearby at Tenaya Way and Lake Mead Boulevard, the two will account for the largest soccer complex nationwide, project lobbyist Tom Skancke said.

Reese, who held the Real Estate meeting by himself Councilman Michael McDonald was absent, recommended the proposal be passed on to the full council for action. McDonald was absent for meetings scheduled Oct. 18, Nov. 30 and Dec. 13, and was present for meetings on Nov. 2 and 15. The committee is made up of Reese and McDonald.

If the plan is approved Wednesday, the city and Premier Soccer would then have to negotiate with the BLM to find out whether the proposed complex is allowed under terms of the state's recreational uses act for public lands.

The BLM would have final say in the agreement.

The unsolicited offer from Premier Soccer is hailed citywide due to the lack of soccer fields throughout the valley. The city's potential loss to the state Department of Transportation of Charleston Heights Preservation Park would cost soccer players two fields. There are about 30 soccer fields in the Las Vegas Valley at parks and schools for the almost 20,000 children who play soccer in leagues.

On June 1 half of the 16 fields used by soccer teams near Sam Boyd Stadium will be converted by the county for use as softball fields.

The shortage, coupled with the growing popularity of youth soccer, has left many leagues fighting for field space at night and on weekends.

Reese said he wanted the facility to include seating at each of the 20 fields and to maintain well-marked boundaries between the playing surfaces to avoid the confusion he said he's witnessed elsewhere in the valley during youth soccer tournaments.

"If we're going to do this, I want it to be first-class," Reese said.

Marrone said Premier Soccer should be able to raise the entire $12.9 million once the land lease is secured.

The biggest factor to raising the money, Marrone said, "is to have a lease on the land."