Fact: my son’s Alameda U10 soccer team last year played 8 of 10 games in Oakland and all tournament play was in Oakland

Fact: my son’s Alameda U12 team played 100% of games in Alameda

More info to come, between the recall, computer issues and non-blog commitments, I haven’t been able to get back to it.

Shortly. Thanks for your patience.

Of course in this blog, they don’t mention there is a rule in Alameda that your team must consist of 75% Alameda residents to use their fields. My kids’ team can’t even play on these fields even though 50% of their team is from Alameda. How sad is that? I am an Alameda taxpayer and my kids can’t even play on these fields. How can ASC claim that PSC or Bay Oaks have exclusive rights to these fields? Do they even know the history behind all of this? Sad they didn’t know they had rights to the fields too but didn’t take advantage of it. So now they want their sister clubs to look bad.

As any club in Jack London, we pay to play on these fields. These fields aren’t free to these clubs and the only one who basically has exclusive rights to certain fields is Alameda Soccer Club.

J.E.A., if you want a list of these field rich fields, go to the Alameda Soccer Club or the Jack London website and look under fields.

Here are the list of fields they don’t mention about that aren’t even available to Alameda residents if you don’t belong to a team in ASC or have 75% of players from Alameda.

1) Alameda Multi-purpose
2) Atlantic 1 & 2
3) Bayport
4) Coast Guard
5) Godfrey
6) Harrington
7) Hornet
Lincoln Park
9) Tillman
10) Witter 1
11) Wood Track

Not to mention, there are fields at the various schools in Alameda.

How can they say they are lacking fields? If their field scheduler was doing their job correctly, they wouldn’t have 3 teams at one time practicing at the same field. We were long time ASC members and we never had these type of issues until this new board came in. Someone needs to fire them!! They aren’t doing it for the kids, it’s all for selfish reasons.

You need to ask, what is the driving factor behind all this? Why aren’t they willing to work with Jack London and their sister clubs? Don’t they want money coming in for Alameda city? I sure do.

How can they be upset that their sister clubs want to help rehabilitate a field by using their own club money? This just doesn’t make sense.

1) Most of the fields for the JLYSL are in Alameda.

2) Most players are from parts of Oakland, ie Rockridge, Montclair, etc.

3) Oakland doesn’t do a whole lot right and sports fields are no exception. However, the Rockridge and Montclair clubs do have money.

4) Peidmont has few fields, no space but they have money too.

5) Alameda hosts most games JLYSL plays and ASC teams play the vast, vast majority of games at home. Parents all cheer !!

6) That there is a shortage of fields as Alameda is dominated by three main facts. One, long time baseball interests dominate, although soccer is the No. 1 kids sport, particularly for girls; Two, Alameda’s parks were build before soccer was popular so a retrofit is needed in park priorities; and Three, the drought and the financial crisis are not helping. The city is closing access to fields on both accounts.

7) City government has to do a lot of things, but not a whole lot is done great. Soccer fields take a lot of work as the sport is hard on fields (“if only those pesky kids weren’t around, the parks would be great”).

Bay Oaks is an orphan when it comes to fields because it is both Oakland and Alameda, but neither as well. That Alameda’s best players (about 30 percent of players on Bay Oaks are from Alameda) generally play on Bay Oaks (not always, as Class 1 soccer is an acquired taste) leads to resentment as some Class 3 coaches at ASC who resent losing their best players to Bay Oaks and the clubs have rivalries. Hardly a shocking idea.

However, let me editorialize, Its a shame that Alameda has kicked them off Alameda’s fields as these are Alameda’s High School soccer teams by and large and they have to play most games away. Shame and more shame on Alameda parks and wrecks. Mr. Dale Lillard and that board really needs to wake up on this issue as the worst of Alameda’s draw bridge mentality is at play on this issue.

9) JLYSL tries to manage this best they can and the deal for Piedmont to pay to manage Alameda Point’s 3 u-12-14 fields and one U-10 field at Alameda Point is more than reasonable.

10) These fields are used for home games for ASC kids as well.

11) One big issue here, restated, is that Bay Oaks teams have been kicked off Alameda’s city owned fields. This is likely one reason why they want access to Alameda point fields in this deal, paid for, I may add, by Piedmont. That means that Alameda’s best soccer players can actually play in town, paid for by outsiders. Not a bad deal if you can get it, I’d say.

12) So the bottom line is that Alameda’s kids gets an investment in fields, and more home games.

13) ASC is going thru a transition as a new group tossed out the old group because one Dad was mad about who was coaching one girls Select team. No, this is not made up. Just like term- limits in Sacramento, this has led to a new group (at ASC) having to come up to speed on lots of issues and holding a grudge on fields, Bay Oaks, etc. is just part of that. No shock that some of what is going on is personal, but let’s leave that out for now a for a moment pretend to focus on the kids.

What is the deal here anyway? Alameda should want out-of-towners coming in, spending money at Soccer Post, etc. Alameda is in dire need of a new identity anyway and being a regional destination for sports and soccer is hardly a downer in my view.

Come on people. Stop baiting the issue as out of towner’s abusing Alameda.

Accept the basic facts. JLYSL is almost certainly better than going alone, Oakland is a mess and short on fields but the clubs have a bit of money they want to spend here in Alameda on the old base for the time being.

Lastly, allow Alameda’s best players who play on Bay Oaks and have access to fields in town and move on already.

Hope this helps

Just to be clear, my son’s Alameda Rec team played all but two games outside of Alameda last year. It may not be normal, but it’s certainly happened.

JAE,

The answer to your initial comment is “I don’t know.”

I think that the answer probably lies between the two sides of issue. There do seem to be some field space issues, but it’s also important to keep in mind that JLYSL offers a lot of benefits to Alameda players and to realize that there’s a benefit to working together regionally.

In the interest of keeping the post short(ish), I kept my personal opinion out, trying to cover the overall issue I hadn’t meant to endorse it as my own POV, just push the info out there. I plan to write about my own thoughts another day.

Cynthia and Tony, feel free to hit me with more info, I’ll be happy to add it to the above page, or present it separately in its own post.

For the very reasons stated in the story – Alameda has most of the fields – ASC teams play almost every game at home, and almost never play away.

My kids have played soccer for over 10 seasons combined in ASC and we have maybe played two games out-of-town.

Much to the happiness, I may add, of the parents who don’t want to play in Oakland.