Premier soccer facility proposed

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999 | 10:13 a.m.

A simple Saturday's drive past one of the valley's few soccer fields reveals hundreds of parents shuffling uniformed youngsters to the proper game amid a visual chaos of flags, inflatable markers and moms huddled with strollers.

The pending loss of the Charleston Neighborhood Preservation Park where 10 fields fill up with similar sights each weekend has dealt something of a yellow card to youth soccer organizers.

But the region's most popular youth sport could see some needed relief if the Las Vegas City Council accepts an unsolicited proposal from a nonprofit group hoping to develop 100 acres of land into the region's premier soccer park.

"If we can pull it off, it'd be a fantastic addition to the community," said Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, whose ward currently includes the site eyed for the complex.

Las Vegas Premier Soccer Club Inc. sent a letter to the city in September requesting to build 20 fields and one stadium on Bureau of Land Management-owned property located between the Summerlin Parkway and Washington Avenue and stretching from Buffalo Drive west to Durango Drive.

The club was granted nonprofit tax status earlier this year -- a move some see as vital to any chance that the BLM will allow the type of development proposed.

"The BLM may weigh in on whether that's an appropriate use of federal land," Boggs McDonald said.

David Roark, the city's manager of Real Estate and Asset Management, said the city has negotiated leases of BLM land in the past with nonprofit groups.

"I don't know yet if this will go," Roark said. "We've done it before, but the BLM has changed the rules on it."

Under terms of the proposal, the soccer club plans to spend just under $12.9 million developing the site. The complex would include the 8,000-seat stadium, 20 fields, parking, restrooms and other improvements.

Las Vegas Premier Soccer Club is asking to lease the currently vacant land from the city for 50 years -- at which point the land, with the improvements, would become city property.

Gary S. Marrone, the soccer club's president, has asked the city to contribute $1.9 million in off-site improvements and utility work to spur the development.

"If we have the financial resources, it would be a great return on our money," Boggs McDonald said.

The council's Real Estate Committee meets this afternoon to consider whether to recommend that the full council act on the offer at its meeting Wednesday. The council could vote Wednesday to negotiate a lease agreement with Premier Soccer Club, pending final approval by the BLM.

Roark said he has spoken with representatives of both the developer and the BLM and has been told "it might be doable."

"It would be a very good deal for everybody," Roark said. "Not just the city of Las Vegas, but for every kid in the valley."