Soccer mega complex comes to Castle Pines area
By Lisa Crockett with photos and illustration courtesy of Real Colorado
Real Colorado, a Douglas County non-profit that sponsors more than 450 youth and adult soccer teams, has made its first steps towards having its own playing facility. The organization has signed a contract to purchase 22 acres of land in Parker east of I-25. The site, which has enough space for six soccer fields is being purchased from Shea Homes in the Meridian Business Center, just north of Lincoln Avenue on Peoria Street.
At completion, the new field complex will include five practice/league game fields, a championship grass field and a future clubhouse. The land purchase is the first phase of a $5.8 million, multi-year, multi-phase project.
Real Colorado is soliciting donations in order to begin field construction on the land, which could be completed as soon as the end of the year if efforts to raise funds are successful. Real estimates that it needs roughly $500,000 in order to complete two playing fields – a championship grass field and a synthetic turf field.
“Being located in Douglas County is our blessing and our curse,” said Jim Jungjohann and Tony Clapp in a public statement issued in August, who currently serve as the field complex campaign chair for Real and Real’s chairman of the board. “The land in our immediate area is very costly, our biggest hurdle. The board, in an effort to reduce travel times and increase ‘family time’ efficiencies, felt the new complex needed to be as close as economically feasible to our existing rental fields.”
A downturn in the economy has meant more affordable land in the local community, an opportunity Real can take advantage of using savings, donations and revenue from fundraising.
Playing field space in the South Denver area for soccer hasn’t increased much in the last ten years, but team usage is up. Currently, Real rents all its playing space – a $320,000 expense for the 2009 season, with fees on the rise from Douglas County.
Although Real will continue to rent field space, especially for recreational teams, a central “home” location for Real will not only provide additional field space, but will allow for strategic use of coaching staff and opens up new revenue opportunities for Real.
“We could more readily hold our own tournaments, camps and practices across both competitive and recreational [teams]. With our own fields, we could rent to other organizations such as lacrosse or rugby,” said Junghohann and Clapp.
Real is soliciting donations from Real families, alumni and friends, and is also seeking volunteers to help with fundraising, construction committee work, in-kind donations of labor, materials and expertise.
For more information on the field complex campaign, visit www.realcolorado.net.
