Raiders’ Field Remains Off Limits : Oxnard: The football team uses the facility in the summer, but public access the rest of the year is strictly monitored.

For a group of 12-year-old girls who wanted to play soccer at the north Oxnard fields the Los Angeles Raiders use during the summer, the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence.

Oxnard parent Linda Flaxbeard said that several months ago private security guards kicked the 28 girls off the pristine field and prevented them from holding a scrimmage at the facility because the children posed too great a threat to the grass.

The 4.3-acre lot, surrounded by a chain-link fence and padlocked much of the year, is owned by the city but maintained year-round by the Raiders, who use it for seven weeks during the summer.

To play on the fields, Oxnard residents must submit an application, pay a $10-an-hour fee, and bear responsibility for any damage to the field.

While Raiders officials have said they do not object to public use of the field, the city continues to strictly monitor access. Raiders officials were not available for comment Thursday.

Residents of the nearby north Oxnard neighborhood have protested this policy for years, but it remains intact.

“I think it’s a big waste,” Flaxbeard said. “There are a lot of children involved in different sports in north Oxnard and practically nowhere for them to go.”

Steve Weber, the commissioner of north Oxnard’s organized youth soccer program, said he tried to get permission to use the field but was told by city officials that he could only use one-quarter of the field on any given day.

“That wasn’t even enough space to play a game,” Weber said. “They were worried these kids would tear up the field.”

City officials defended the policy, arguing that the Raiders must take priority over the public when it comes to use of the field.

“The Raiders were brought to Oxnard for a specific reason,” Oxnard City Councilman Mike Plisky said. “Their field requires special care. We just don’t have the wherewithal to turn it into a public park.”

Plisky, who helped bring the Raiders summer camp to Oxnard in the mid-1980s, said he planned to discuss the matter in meetings with Raiders’ officials next week in an effort to increase access to the grounds. But he said a change in policy now was unlikely because the field was not designed for public use.

City officials agreed, saying the field was not intended to serve as a city park. “It doesn’t have playgrounds, basketball poles or picnic tables,” said Michael Henderson, Oxnard’s parks and facilities superintendent. “When the Raiders are not there, we can schedule special events, but that’s about it.”

Recreation supervisor Gil Ramirez said the field has been used in the past by a variety of groups. In recent years, the USC marching band held practice there, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department played the L.A. Police Department in soccer and the neighboring Radisson Suite Hotel at River Ridge even held a lawn tennis event on the site.

“The Raiders are all for having these fields used,” said Kyle Kanny, the city groundskeeper who manicures the fields. “But the more you use it, the more work we have to do to keep it in condition.”

When the fields are not being used, staff from the Radisson Suite Hotel patrol the grounds. And when the city does allow people on the field, it is only under the supervision of a city employee, who monitors for damage to the sod, Ramirez said. “We’ve got to protect the field,” he said.

To nearby residents such as 14-year-old Brian Wilson, the city’s policy makes no sense.

“They water it every day, they mow it, and they keep it looking beautiful,” Brian said. “But no one’s ever there.”

“We’d use it all the time if it was open,” 14-year-old John Weber added. “Instead, all we can do is sit on the hill and look at it.”