1,200 kids are on a waitlist to play soccer in Gig Harbor. 6 new fields ‘won’t be enough’
A $10.5 million project will only begin to address the more than 1,200 kids on soccer waitlists in the Gig Harbor area, according to a local soccer club.
The Gig Harbor Sports Complex is going to be built in phases on 30 acres along Harbor Hill Drive, to the north, south and southwest of the Tom Taylor Family YMCA.
The city purchased the land in 2018 for $3.5 million and partnered with the YMCA on the project.
The nonprofit signed a lease agreement with the city in 2021 for the land.
Phase 1A upgrades two existing fields at the YMCA and is the YMCA’s part of the project. It’s expected to be finished by December 2024, according to the city’s website.
Four additional lit turf fields will be built on the sports complex property in Phase 2 and 3, putting the total at 6 for the entire project.
Demand for field space
“The sports groups in the city have told us six fields won’t be enough,” Laura Pettitt, the city’s communications and tourism director, told the Gateway. “The city is working with Peninsula School District and Peninsula Metropolitan Park District to identify existing fields for possible upgrades.”
Jason Jarrett, technical director and general manager at Harbor Soccer Club, told the Gateway Friday that building the sports complex in the next few years will only begin to address waitlists that recreational sports groups are facing in Gig Harbor.
Upgrading fields is a start, Jarrett said.
Harbor Soccer Club is just one of the organizations for fall recreational soccer in Gig Harbor. Other programs are run by PenMet and the YMCA.
This season the Harbor Soccer League had 1,200 kids on its waitlist to play, Jarrett said.
PenMet and the YMCA also had waitlists.
The YMCA had a 25-person waitlist for fall soccer this year, Maura White, Association Marketing and Communications Director for the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, told the Gateway Monday.
“The waitlists are prominent and we try our best to add more space so that we’re able to accommodate more children,” White said.
PenMet confirmed they also had a waitlist at the beginning of the season, but did not provide specific numbers.
They also struggle with field space availability, Zemorah Murray, director of administrative services at PenMet, told the Gateway Monday.
“We can’t fill the number of kids wanting to play because of the number of fields available in Gig Harbor,” Jarrett said. “All the recreational sports programs (soccer, football, lacrosse, etc) are competing for field space. But there’s also all the school programs as well. We’re all fighting for time on the fields.”
On a weekly basis, just the Harbor Soccer League alone is putting six to eight teams on one soccer field to practice and play, he said.
Year-round sports take the biggest hit, Jarrett said.
“When it’s dark at four in the afternoon and wet from the rain, you need to play on lit turf fields,” he said. “And there’s not enough of them for everyone to be under the lights.“
Teams don’t just need more fields, they need existing ones upgraded to turf fields with lights, Jarrett said.
In the meantime, he said kids on the waitlist are leaving Gig Harbor to play.
“They’ll go across the bridge to Tacoma,” Jarrett said. “We’ve got players that travel all the way to Tukwila three times a week to be able to play.”
Six new lit turf sports fields will come with Phase 1A of the sports complex. Phase 2 of the sports complex will upgrade the two existing recreational little league fields at the YMCA. They will also be lit turf fields.
“The two little league fields I’m sure will be reserved as soon as they’re finished,” Jarrett said.
He also believes PSD needs to stop building grass fields and turn the existing school fields to turf, he said, referencing the new fields that came with PSD’s Capital Bonds Project.
“On Feb. 12, 2019, the PSD community passed a $198.55 million bond for school construction to address extreme elementary overcrowding and other emergent infrastructure needs,” the district website said.
Two new schools were added to the district and four were replaced or remodeled. None of the six have turf fields.
“The bond funds were promised for two new elementary schools, two replacement buildings for two of our existing elementary schools, and ‘emergent needs,’” school district spokesperson Danielle Chastaine told the Gateway via email. “There were never plans to use 2019 bond funds towards turf fields. As you know, because of some cost saving efforts by PSD, we were able to use some of the 2019 Capital Projects Bond to renovate Key Peninsula Middle School and Kopachuck Middle School.”
Asked if there are plans to build turf fields in the future, Chastaine responded: “There are no new turf fields or turf field projects underway or planned.”
“The more turf down, the better,” Jarrett said. “It will help spread out the usage of fields.”
Harbor Soccer Club has nights where kids don’t train due to field availability.
“We’ll receive an email in the afternoon that the school district needs the field for unexpected games or training at night,” Jarrett said. “Therefore we don’t get to be there. And then we have hundreds of kids and families you know that were expected to go training in two or three hours that we have to either cancel or squeeze onto another space and make it way overcrowded.”
It’s hard to say how many additional kids they’ll be able to accommodate with the new fields at the sports complex, he said.
He hopes they’ll be able to take kids off the waitlist and be able to better manage the number of kids they have currently playing.
Harbor Soccer Club continues to look into having their own complex, Jarrett said. Funding and space have held them back.
Yacht moorage allegations
The city made a recent post on its website and spoke in episode three of The Gig-a-Byte podcast, on Nov. 3, to answer questions they’ve heard from the community about the project.
They said one allegation they’ve heard is that city funding is supporting yacht moorage instead of the sports complex fields — that the city is building the Ancich float system for luxury yachts to moor in the marina during the summertime when commercial fishing boats are not there.
“Funding for luxury yachts is not even a part of our budget,” Pettitt said.
The city has committed $10.5 million to date for the sports complex, and it remains a priority for the council, Pettit said.
Mayor Tracie Markley said on the podcast that the moorage project was designed and is being built for commercial fishing boats to have the ability to use it year round.
“It’s my intention that when commercial fishermen are not docked there, no one is docked there,” Mayor Markley said on the podcast.
The intent is not for it to accommodate recreational boats, Carl de Simas, the city’s community development director, said on the podcast.
“Could it accommodate for luxury yachts? Maybe, yes. But that’s not the intent,” de Simas said on the podcast.
YMCA Partnership
The YMCA is currently fundraising for Phase 1A. They’ve raised about $1 million of their $7 million goal.
“We’ve raised over $1 million not with a lot of effort,” Charlie Davis, CEO of YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties, said on the podcast. “That just shows the support and enthusiasm for this project. We feel very encouraged by that.”
Their goal is to have all funds raised by June 30, 2023, he said.
Phase 1B includes restrooms, picnic shelters, pickleball courts, an event lawn, and bocce ball courts, among others things, and is the city’s part of the project.
The total cost for Phase 1B is estimated to be $3.8 million and construction is expected to begin in April 2023 and be completed by the end of that year.
During the summer, the public weighed in on sports complex designs for Phase 1B.
They are still in the design process of Phase 1B, de Simas said on the podcast.
City staff will be hosting an informational open house on the design progress for the Gig Harbor Sports Complex Phase 1B on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. at the Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview St.
Once the sports complex is constructed, the YMCA will take the lead in operating and maintaining the facilities.
“We’re the ones who have an understanding of youth program scheduling and have been doing it for a long time,” Davis said on the podcast.
The YMCA will be working with local sports groups and the public on schedules, he said.
“Without the city’s partnership, we could have never done it. But together we can,” Davis said on the podcast.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comments from the Peninsula School District.
This story was originally published November 15, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
