Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Amend the Hornet Field License Agreement with the Alameda Soccer Club to Include Operation and Maintenance of the Adjacent Tennis Courts for Additional Soccer Field Space. (Recreation and Parks 5191)
As you're well aware, spaces that are premium. My initial thought on this project was it's right next to the Hornet feel. It made a lot of sense. There were weeds growing there. It hadn't been used in 20 years. I thought it was a no brainer at that point. And so I started looking at not just how do we make why would this make sense for the community, but how do we make it work? And when I started when I started looking around, what I found was a little bit to my surprise, it wasn't so much of is there other clubs that are doing this, but there is lots of clubs doing this. I think there's more people converting tennis courts to football, one of the fastest growing sports in the country. Then there's not. So I reached out to several organizations around the country. One, the mayor of Kansas City, which I was able to procure a testimonial where they've done 12 of these projects in seven different locations, the city of Elk Grove, Los Angeles, Dallas. I don't know the procedures here, so I have those in hand if you'd like to see those pictures and testimonials. But the idea is that the soccer club, because it's adjacent to us, it seemed to make natural sense. We do have a budget for this. We think we can. We think that we can generate sponsorship in addition. Because we think that we're. We're dealing in good faith in the fact that we have a we have two years remaining on our lease. We've already allocated out of our budget $30,000. We think that based on our conversations with sponsors, we think that we can generate probably upwards of 100, $150,000 if we needed to. And we also have the support based on a recent meeting that I had with the San Jose earthquakes. They're excited to be able to help us with this project now. They're willing to give us financial support, but even more importantly, they're willing to give us their marketing support. Bringing players out here, doing clinics. I'm going to let Pierre Bola from Alameda Football Club talk a little bit more about the benefits of football and really the genesis of this, which is if anybody is aware of their kids play in Alameda, which is called Friday Night Football. So I'll let her talk a little bit more on that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I'm here, Bhola, and I'm here representing Alameda Football Club. I'm the co-president. I've actually also been involved with the soccer club for about five years now. And I have three children that have gone through the U.S. school system. And actually currently I'm coaching the JV Women's High School team at Almeida High School. So I just came from practice. So one of the things that football provides right now is so the women's football club is based out of Alameda Point Gym. And as you know, space is a premium. This is even more so for gym space than field space. There are many opportunities for the outdoor game. Very few. I mean, we've got Alameda Point Gym and that's it. And over the past few years, our gym time is slowly, you know, decreasing as more and more groups try to use the space. One of the things that we bring, that Alameda Soccer Club is very excited about and the earthquakes are very excited about is this program we call Football Fridays. And that is a place for kids to drop in. There's no coaching, there's some supervision. But really, the kids have to organize themselves. They get to play. It's roughly by skill level. So sometimes there are six year olds playing with 12 year olds actually often. And so part of what they learn is how to self-manage, how to play fairly against opponents of multiple sizes. And this is a really important skill and it's a great freedom for the kids. We would love to expand this program, and we can't do it right now. A lot of kids can't make Friday night. In addition, we'd like to serve the grown up population. I personally would love to play. We cannot play year round the grown ups because we don't have gym time. We get to play when we do our winter league. So, you know, I really ask you to please support this, you know, granting the least element to soccer club and we've Alameda Football Club is going to work very closely with them to, you know, maintain the facilities and to provide opportunities for the youth and the community. Thank you so much, John Paxson. Good evening. Madam Mayor and Council members during the approval of this with the Parks Rec Commission. When I gave the presentation and some of the rebuttals, two key issues came up. One was the issue of using chrome rubber, which is the much known as a toxic material. So we are now committed to making sure that we will not use any toxic material and nontoxic acrylic or rubber surface. The other issue that came up was the issue of the whole Triangle Park being open space, green spaces. So we want to let you know that it will remain open space, green space. It will be preserved and open for anyone to use. The other issue is youth organizations that want to use Ornette or the repurposed tennis courts. Those are always going to be available. So we work with any of our PD to let any element of youth organizations use it. It has to be approved by our PD, but also any other organization that comes into Alameda may want to use it. Ornette and this other new field will be available. An example would be when we had the America's Cup here sailing team. Artemus was here. They came to us and asked, Can we use Hornet Field for downtime for Frisbee? We said, sure. Let us clear with the LAPD and you could use it. So any organization as part of a community effort has availabilities these fields. So I'm hoping that you'll support this and provide this available to all community bound. Thank you. Thank you. David. And Scott. Those are our last speakers on the final. My name is David Lee Cashman. I'm a volunteer for the Alameda Soccer Club. I coach a few teams. I recognize that name. There might have a one of my favorite players that you might be related to. And I also am on the board of directors and I'm a I've been a construction engineer for 30 years and a contractor for 20 years. And basically I'm this and make it quick. I'm here to assure the council that I get volunteer for stuff like that to make sure this project is run safely and it'll be environmentally, you know, compatible with the area and you know, well, it'll be done safely as well, you know, and. There's not it's not a very complicated project. So I just want to and I volunteer for stuff like this for the club in the past and I want to give the council my reassurances as someone who knows the construction business is on board. Wonderful. Thank you, Scott. Even better, Mayor. The council members. I see you all. I know a lot of faces here. I represent the soccer club in many ways, not only as a board member, but as the field coordinator. What my job is to really do is to interact with Amy and her staff to make sure the fields are available safe for play for all of our youth. In regards to both fall and spring seasons of soccer. That includes practice times and play in field times for games and everything else. But one of the biggest roles that I really have is incorporating and managing the interaction with other youth groups in the city. Because soccer does maintain a huge amount of the field space during the especially in the fall months. And I have to interact with a lot of other groups to allow them to be able to play on some of the fields that we're permitted for them. The cooperation interaction is really critical there, and I just wanted to ensure everybody in the city council that that is one, we're going to continue to do that to make sure those fields are open and available, especially the new space that we're looking to develop. So when I'm working with Amy's group and those requests that come through, they all come through me. I feel like the king of the land sometimes, but I have to. Someone's got to manage the whole thing. And I do my very best to cooperate to make sure that all of our youth groups can play time on all of our fields. And we would add this one additional dimension to one of the fields that we have available. I think it would make a huge difference for our community and will help us open up some new sports for us as well. And I feel like this and I do my very best to help make sure that the continued commitment to making sure equal play for all and get everybody out there is maintained. So I would really encourage you all to pass this for us and allow us the opportunity to redo this field for a couple of years, not to our release. Thank you very much. Thank you. So I'm really glad I pulled this item so that you all came out and shared the good work that you're doing. And I think that it is important to share this. And I wanted to make sure and I want to thank staff, Ms. Wooldridge for all of your work to make this happen as well as our community members that are stepping up. And I wanted to make sure that this is being shared with our parents group so that they're aware. I know, you know, the Little League team was shared with them and I was able to participate in some of their games. But I do think it's very important that this be broadcast so that other people in our community, everyone knows what's going on. And you might think about sharing it on social media and maybe some photo ops for our local papers to make sure we're getting the word out. That being said, any council comments? Amber Ashcraft I move approval second. All those in favor. I motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Last item I pulled five H. Recommendation to authorize the city manager to issue a notice to proceed with Max Creek Inc DBA Mach five for construction management services for the Cross Alameda. Trail through Jean Sweeney. Open Space Park and to appropriate 160,000 to the Cross Alameda Trail Project budget from the General Fund Available Fund Balance. Right. And I pulled the him in because it's 160,000 from the general fund. And I wanted to give staff an opportunity to share why it's important to to fund this at this point instead of having it go