Players Cry Foul : Volunteers Are Upset by Fees Oxnard Plans to Charge at New Soccer Field

With formidable gusto and Bermuda sod, Oxnard’s soccer zealots turned a blighted patch of dirt and weeds at Oxnard College into a pristine field for Cameroon’s World Cup soccer team.

City leaders and Oxnard College trustees promised hundreds of volunteers that Oxnard’s talented soccer leagues would be free to compete at the vaunted venue once the Cup was over.

The Cameroonians went home after quickly stumbling months ago. But Oxnard’s soccer fans are still waiting to play on the flawless, tournament-quality field they built.

City and college officials have finally devised a plan to open the field to the public. But a costly new catch has some ex-volunteers railing about the exclusive use of their labor of love: Officials plan to charge $40 to $50 an hour to play on the lush field.

“We had to volunteer to create these fields, something the city should have done, and on top of it we’re being asked to pay,” said Oxnard United Soccer Clubs President Edmundo Mendez, who shepherded the volunteer effort. “I don’t really think that’s fair.”

Oxnard contributed about 20% of the $100,000 needed to piece together the field. The soccer clubs and Oxnard College raised the remaining $80,000, college administrator Irene Pinkard said.

Pinkard said she sympathizes with the soccer fans. But the field, burdensome and costly to maintain, has become one of the school’s best-known attractions. The Pumas, a professional soccer team from Mexico, rented the field in July, bringing the school added recognition.

“I laid some sod myself,” Pinkard said of the world-class field that has now been split in two for local use. “But I think that one has to realize that someone is taking care of them, watering them, cutting them. There is a lot of interest in the fields. We now have something the college can use for economic development.”

Pinkard said the field fee would vary, depending on who wants to use them, but would average between $40 and $50 an hour for each. Soccer teams now pay $4 to $25 an hour to use city fields.

Francisco Robles, coach of the Necaxa adult team, said most older soccer enthusiasts are laborers who cannot afford to pay that kind of money. And most younger players come from poor families, he said.

Robles did not expect overseers to charge volunteers to play, and feels betrayed.

“They never told us that they were going to charge that kind of money to play there,” Robles said. “A lot of people worked very hard under the belief that we would be allowed to use those fields. The city did not have enough people to do that job in time.”

Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said that Mendez and other soccer league representatives have attended meetings between the college and the city and have not complained before about the fees.

The city and college still must approve the plan, and there is plenty of time for detractors to object, the mayor said.

College trustees are set to discuss the proposal Oct. 4, and the City Council is expected to review the matter soon.

“One of the great failings we have in the city is that recreation has suffered due to budget constraints,” Lopez said. “This is especially true when it comes to soccer fields. We have a huge soccer-playing community here, and we haven’t been as accommodating as we need to be.”

Indeed, Oxnard’s soccer fans say the city’s 100 soccer teams only have three tattered fields to play on: Del Sol Park, Colonia Park and the older facilities at Oxnard College.

The 13-year-old Del Sol Stadium hosts so many games that teams now play largely on dirt. Players complain that the little grass that remains routinely causes ankle injuries, disrupts passing and takes away from the artistry of the game.

“Basically, there is no turf in the center of the field, from one goal to another,” said Ramon Diaz, president of the Ventura County Soccer League. “It’s pretty bad.”

About 100 soccer fans marched through La Colonia last month and crashed a meeting of the normally sleepy city Parks and Recreation Commission to protest a request by a semipro football team to use Del Sol Park for its home games.

The commission rejected the request, and the City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to renovate Colonia, Thompson and Del Sol parks, including re-sodding the soccer fields.

But soccer league leaders are now worried that the improvements will cut short their season, which starts in October. So more than ever, they say they need another place to play--and the Cameroon Field, as it has become known, is clearly the best candidate around.

“The surface is perfect for soccer,” Diaz said.

The dispute over Cameroon Field--and last month’s march--have served as reminders to city leaders that the soccer leagues are tired of being ignored.

“Some of the best amateur teams in California come from Oxnard,” Mendez said. “The level of play is very high. But the fields are in very bad condition. . . . We work hard to give these kids something to do.”

Others also said recognition of deteriorating conditions is long overdue.

“We’re progressively playing on more and more dirt and less and less grass,” said Richard Menken, commissioner for American Youth Soccer Organization in south Oxnard and Port Hueneme. “I contend the city would be better off buying a plot of land and having six or seven soccer fields on it. They seem more intent on building softball fields so they can charge adults.”

City recreation Superintendent Karen Burnham said the city does not have the money for such a purchase.

A possible alternative, Mayor Lopez said, is the two football fields used by the Los Angeles Raiders for six weeks each summer, but are unused the rest of the year.