North Vancouver soccer community pushing for turf field

A North Vancouver soccer club wants the district to follow through on a 2018 vote to build a turf field.

Brandi Scales’ son plays soccer in North Vancouver, and she isn’t thrilled with her son having to practice and play on a gravel field rather than the turf field that was promised.

“The eye sore behind me is supposed to be a turf field and that was promised to us by the district in 2018. Not building new fields to me is just ridiculous,” said Scales.

District Council voted to build the field at Inter River in 2018. While there’s been progress since, a draft budget presented to council at a recent meeting suggested deferring the project, prompting the North Vancouver Football Club (NVFC) to start a petition.

Stuart Ince, president of NVFC, says there are six turf fields in North Vancouver and the area has the lowest ratio of turf fields to players in the Lower Mainland.

“Kids that want to join our academies or our development programs – we have the full sign-up. We can’t accept anymore because we can’t literally put any more kids on those fields,” he explained. “We’re putting as many as four teams on a turf field in an evening to practice, and it’s not good enough.”

He says one-third of the club’s players- 11-hundred- never use a turf field. They play on a gravel field. He suggests that doesn’t happen in any other first world country.

“Gravel, in the winter, you’re playing on wet, muddy, fields full of puddles. How to expect the kids to learn technical skills in that environment? In the summer months, and in the fall, if you think about the weather we had this fall, no rain. Those fields become a dust bowl,” Ince said.

“His grandparents come to visit and he wants them to come see him play but if it’s pouring rain and they’re gonna be standing in a mud pit too or it’s gonna be dusty and they can’t see him, they’re unlikely to watch him,” Scales added.

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Ince says the need for this field, and others, only grows with time.

“Since COVID, our numbers are considerably higher than they were in 20-19. So we have more kids on very minimal facilities, and soccer is the largest participatory sport in BC, it’s the largest participatory sport in Canada, and frankly the largest participatory sport in the world,” Ince explained.

“Soccer is a sport that has relatively low barriers to entry. Doesn’t require a lot of equipment, can be played outside, you don’t need indoor facilities to play, and so from a diversity and inclusion standpoint, it’s just such a great sport for kids to be involved in,” said Scales.

A final decision on whether to defer construction will be made until after public consultation on the draft budget ends next month.