Page One

The city’s youth soccer teams began practices Tuesday. But league officials said that Berkeley kids who dream of being the next Pele or Mia Ham barely have room to stretch. 

The problem, they say, is overcrowded sports fields. As has become customary in Berkeley, multiple teams are crowding onto a single field for practice because a shortage of sports fields is cheating neighborhood kids out of the chance to play team sports, field advocates say. 

“We have a waiting list for kids trying to get into the league,” said Alan Fong, President of the Albany-Berkeley Soccer League (ABSL), which organizes 1,000 kids into 63 teams. 

At least 10 kids who wanted to join the league have not been admitted. 

Bearing the brunt of the field shortage, league officials say, are minority kids. 

During the mid-1990s the ABSL tried to recruit more black and Latino youth into its ranks. However, now that space is so restricted, that effort has slowed, said Tim Perry, former president of the ABSL. 

“It’s impossible to do outreach if there is no place for more kids to play,” he explained. 

Berkeley operates 14 sports fields. According to city officials, Berkeley’s field space is only one-fifth the amount of most similarly sized cities. During the busy spring and fall seasons, soccer, softball, baseball, football, lacrosse, rugby and ultimate Frisbee clubs all compete for precious turf. 

Everybody in the sports field tug-of-war ends up a loser, said Perry. “We could have 250 to 500 more kids in the league if we had the fields for them to play on,” he added. 

The main reason for the shortage of play space is the soaring popularity of girls’ athletics, said Doug Fielding of the Association of Sports Field Users. Since 1990, the number of Berkeley girls playing soccer and softball has risen from about 40 to 750, but the city has added only four new fields, he said. 

The problem, added Perry, is the dangerous practice of mixing different teams on the same practice field. “One year, we had a 10-year-old soccer team sharing a field with two adult rugby teams. It was an interesting and slightly scary contrast.” 

The field shortage is even worse in the spring, when baseball and softball leagues operate. According to Perry the 1,000-member fall soccer league shrinks to 600 in the spring because there are fewer available fields. Practices are also cut in half, from three to one-and-a-half hours a week because of overcrowding. 

The dearth of sports fields affects more than youth soccer, Perry said. Adult leagues often have to schedule games late at night to accommodate children playing during the evening, and pick-up games are stymied because fields are always in use.  

Berkeley public schools are also in a bind. The Berkeley High School baseball team plays its home games at San Pablo Park, about a mile from the school, because it lacks a suitable facility on campus. 

The periodic skirmishes between teams sharing space pale in comparison to the political clashes under way to build more fields. 

In 1999 the city opened Harrison Park at Fifth and Gilman streets. The park added four fields to Berkeley’s collection, but sport field advocates say that at least nine more are needed to meet the growing demand. 

Several years ago a plan to build a baseball diamond and permanent farmer’s market at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Derby Street was shot down by neighbors. Mayor Shirley Dean recently called for the project to be reconsidered. 

This year, a proposal by park planners to build five fields at the Albany Plateau in Eastshore State Park has angered environmentalists. According to Robert Cheasty of Citizens for an Eastshore State Park, the chosen site is better suited for informal recreation, and young children could disturb migratory birds that nest on the mudflats just north of the proposed fields. 

Cheasty and a majority of Berkeley City Council members propose that Berkeley join with nearby cities to purchase land owned by the Golden Gate Fields racetrack adjacent to Gilman Street and convert the land into athletic fields. But field advocates say there is no guarantee that the race track land will be purchased and converted into fields. 

“Every time we try to build fields, a group forms and says ‘No, not here,’ ” said Fielding, defending the inclusion of fields at the state park. “If they don’t get built at the state park, they may not get built at all.” 

Contact reporter at matt@berkerleydailyplanet.net