Adult soccer players are not happy - feel they are not getting their share of dome time

By Pepper Parr

November 7th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

This doesn’t sound very nice.

The adult soccer people are upset – again.

There seems to be a bit of a turf war (no pun intended) with the Burlington Youth Soccer Club on one side and the Burlington Soccer League (BSL), Burlington Women’s Recreational Soccer League (BWRSL), Burlington Old Timers Soccer Club (BOTSC), and Burlington Ladies Soccer League (BLSL) on the other.

Adult soccer players feel they are not getting their share of time in the soccer domes – have formed a consortium and are taking a petition to city council.

Burlington adult soccer communities claim they have been displaced by the inaction of the city which they claim has allowed the Burlington Youth Soccer Club (BYSC) — without external input or approval — to deny long-standing dome users their rightful place in the City-owned and tax-payer financed domes while leaving the public facility largely empty.

In a petition the BSL, the BWRSL, the BOTSC and the BLSL are circulating, they maintain that: “After contributing initial funding for development and rental fees for 15+ years the during which the groups have contributed well in excess of $600,000 to the Sherwood Forest Park Domes they are being kept out as of this fall.

Apparently “No negotiations were offered by the City or BYSC and no conversations toward working together have taken place. Instead the adult soccer clubs have had their programming replaced — and in some cases duplicated — by the BYSC in an effort to create a monopoly for soccer in Burlington.

This forces residents to pay higher fees for fewer games at a lower quality or to travel outside of the City in which their tax dollars helped to fund this soccer facility.

The petition is on line – look at the facts, talk to those adults who play soccer and then consider making your voice heard.

The Burlington Youth Soccer Club has become quite a bit more aggressive in their marketing and promotion efforts and while they are the largest soccer organization in the city there has always been considerable animosity between this very large club and the smaller groups.

We recall a meeting a number of years ago (2011) at city hall during which a number of woman with babies in their arms or in strollers massed in the council chamber to make their point. Council backed down and the issue was resolved.  Link to that story set out below.

Women’s soccer teams want time slots back

There is something that isn’t right with the way things get managed within the Parks and Recreation department. Currently the seniors that used to have a considerable amount of influence with the way things were run at the Seniors’ Centre found themselves locked out of the office they were using and told to find accommodation somewhere else – the city took over much of the programming the seniors were doing. They formed their own organization and are offering some interesting and innovative programs.

Now the adult soccer groups seem to find that they too are not part of the “collaborative” process that the city administrators like to brag about.

The adult groups are asking city Councillors to intervene.  They don’t want to mess with the Mother’s