photo by: City of Lawrence
The Lawrence City Commission discusses a $1.5 million project to resurface two grass soccer fields with turf at the Clinton Lake Youth Sports Complex as part of its meeting Dec. 21, 2021.
City leaders have deferred a decision on a $1.5 million project to resurface two grass soccer fields with turf at the Clinton Lake Youth Sports Complex due to concerns about the conditions being requested by the soccer league that would be the primary user of the new fields.
Sporting Kaw Valley is requesting that the city bar competing youth soccer leagues from using the grass fields that it will no longer be using within the same complex. City attorneys cited legal reasons that the city cannot accommodate that request, and the Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously as part of its meeting Tuesday to defer consideration of a contract with Mammoth Sports Construction to resurface the fields and an amendment to the city’s Capital Improvement Plan to include the project.
Sporting Kaw Valley executive director Marcus Dudley told the commission that the league is asking for the “limited exclusivity” for use of the whole complex due to the large financial commitment it will be making to help support the turf fields. Dudley said the league, which is a nonprofit, would be moving all of its divisions except for its recreation division onto the turf fields and would be raising fees on the upper divisions to help pay for the added costs.
He said if another youth soccer league were allowed to use the vacated grass fields, it could offer a cheaper price and draw players away, threatening Sporting Kaw Valley’s ability to cover the rental costs.
“We are trying to prevent other groups from coming in and directly competing with the services that we’re providing because we’ve made the conscious choice of making changes to our programming to offset the debt that the city would incur with this project,” Dudley said.
Revenue from hourly field rental fees, primarily from Sporting Kaw Valley, would substantially offset the city’s debt payments for the project, making it budget neutral, according to a city memo. Rental fees paid by the league over the next 10.5 years would cover $1.36 million of the installation cost. The city would still be responsible for maintenance costs at the fields.
Under the proposed user agreement, Sporting Kaw Valley would rent the new turf fields for 1,800 hours per year. The league would generally have the turf fields reserved during weekday evenings and all day on Saturdays during the fall and spring seasons, as well as a limited number of hours in the offseason, but would generally leave Sundays open. Lawrence Adult Soccer League, which is not a competing program, currently uses the fields on Sundays and has expressed interest in continuing to do so.
The city has had a land lease with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 1995 to operate the complex, which has 23 fields, according to the city’s website. Sporting Kaw Valley, formerly Kaw Valley Soccer Association, also has a long-running agreement with the city to use the fields, and has long been the primary user under those agreements. What is at issue is the league’s request to have the city bar competing youth soccer leagues from using the vacated grass fields. The league has also requested that the city agree not to offer its own competing youth soccer league on the vacated grass fields.
Deputy City Attorney Randy Larkin told commissioners there were two legal issues with that request. He said one was that the current commission could not make such commitments as part of a 10.5-year user agreement because the current commission cannot bind future commissions. He also said the city’s lease agreement with the Corps of Engineers does not allow the city to give a third party “undue economic advantage.” Larkin said the city’s agreement clearly states the complex needs to be open for public use.
“The situation is regarding these other grass fields and limiting or restricting what they can be (used) for when Kaw Valley doesn’t have them reserved,” Larkin said.
The city is proposing that the user agreement specify that the agreement does not grant Sporting Kaw Valley exclusive rights to the complex. In addition to the legal issues, the city states in the memo that it generally does not grant exclusive rights for use of public property.
There is limited public space for soccer in Lawrence, and representatives and participants in another Lawrence youth soccer league also stated objections to Sporting Kaw Valley’s desire to stop competing leagues from using the complex. BVB International Academy President Joe Comparato said since the league began five years ago, Sporting Kaw Valley’s control over the complex has been a battle.
“It’s our only public soccer complex in town and they have been the only group that’s been able to use it for years,” Comparato said. He added that there are other soccer leagues in town that would likely be willing to share the risk of the investment in turf fields if given space to play, and that he didn’t think the city should be giving exclusive rights to any organization without accepting bids from others.
There was not support to move forward with the exclusivity provision, so the commission voted unanimously to defer the decision so that city staff could continue to work with the league to potentially come to an agreement. To keep the current pricing agreement with Mammoth, the city would need to sign the contract before the end of the year.