New Westminster has tennis courts, basketball courts and fields for all sorts of sports. What it doesn’t have is a soccer court – and one avid soccer fan is pitching the concept to city hall.
Peyton Lupul appeared before city council Monday night to voice his support for the creation of a “soccer court” in New Westminster.
“In New West, we have a lot of great public sport amenities like tennis courts, basketball courts, hockey boxes, and lacrosse boxes,” he said, “But we don’t necessarily have a good space for informal, small-group- setting soccer games to take place.”
Lupul said soccer courts have similar dimensions to a park basketball court and they can fit into areas where full-size soccer fields can’t be accommodated. He said they can be used for playing informal soccer games or practising skills.
“There’s a large demand, I think, for soccer in the city that maybe goes unrecognized because of the strong presence of lacrosse and whatnot in our community,” he said. “But it is the most popular team sport for both youth boys and girls and for new Canadians and immigrants, as well as the most popular team sports for lower income households, and also in multi-family, high-density areas as well.”
Lupul said he thinks it would be great for the city to incorporate a soccer court into an upcoming park, such as the expansion to Westminster Pier Park.
Corrinne Garrett, the city’s acting director of parks and recreation, said a soccer court is a concept the city could consider as part of the upcoming parks and recreation comprehensive plan. She said staff have been doing assessments on the use of park spaces and court spaces, and that is information will feed the parks and rec comprehensive planning process.
“It’s an interesting new concept,” she said. “I haven’t seen it a lot in a lot of neighbouring municipalities.”
Lupul said he’s unaware of any mini soccer courts in Vancouver, but he knows of one in Portland, one in Montreal and a couple in New York City. Like the ones he saw in Copenhagen last year, Lupul said the urban soccer courts usually have fencing around the sides and mesh netting over top to keep the ball inside the court.
“We are going through a comprehensive plan right now that is looking at the recreation needs in the city,” said Mayor Patrick Johnstone. “So I think it’s good timing.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson said the parks and recreation comprehensive plan process will take a holistic look at the city’s parks and recreation needs. She said the process will consider the modern uses of parks and how the city can maximize the space it has available.
“I think this is a really compelling and interesting idea,” she said. “I really feel strongly about figuring out ways for folks who are living in multi-family, high-density areas to have access to recreation and green space. And this kind of thing was totally not on my radar. So thanks for bringing it forward.
