BRSA & Chris Mitchell.. What's the deal?

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Last week (Thursday, Feb. 24), The Advocate published an article about use of the soccer fields at Burbank and Independence, and the desire of a Lafayette-based club to schedule their “home games” at either site. If you missed it, the full article can be found on The Advocate’s website at https://www.2theadvocate.com/news/BREC-hears-soccer-dispute.html.

I want to give you some insight that helps explain why, to date, the Baton Rouge Soccer Association has not scheduled “home games” for the Lafayette Futbol Club at these two Baton Rouge sites in which we control the scheduling. Hopefully, the following points outline the long-standing partnership between us and BREC.

• In April 2006 Baton Rouge Soccer Association (BRSA) and BREC entered into a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement that 1) designated BRSA as BREC’s provider of soccer activities to the East Baton Rouge Community, and 2) allowed BRSA to become the scheduler of soccer matches/tournaments and other uses of the Burbank and Independence facilities.

• BRSA has made a direct cash contribution of $750,000 to the BREC Foundation. These funds have been used by BREC to offset construction costs for recent upgrades to the complex, including the construction of the 10 new fields at Burbank

• BRSA has contributed in excess of $250,000 in in-kind and cash contributions to the site (lighting and lighting automation, electrical upgrades, and lightening detection system).

• All goals, nets, corner flags, benches, paint for modified fields, and staff to maintain are all incurred by BRSA. The costs for the goals and nets alone exceeded $110,000.

• BRSA is fully responsible for paying the monthly bill to Entergy for all electricity used at the Burbank complex.

• BRSA is responsible for, and incurs the costs for scheduling officials for all matches held at the complex.
• BRSA is working with BREC to implement a plan to minimize overuse of the fields in order to maintain the integrity of the turf at the sites.

As you can see, the commitment of our membership has allowed us to become the strongest financial partner in the community with BREC (no other organization has made a greater financial contribution). In return, BREC has designated us as their exclusive provider of soccer programming at these sites. This is a commitment we take seriously.

This commitment is evident in several other areas. For example, we provide outreach and education to underserved citizens of EBR Parish including establishing leagues for children with disabilities, a partnership with I CARE, and efforts to work with other community-based organizations to introduce soccer to minority and economically-disadvantaged citizens. We also provide scholarships to deserving individual and families that are facing financial difficulties.

I can proudly say that no other organization brings this level of commitment to both soccer and to the local community as does our club. We will continue this leadership by working with BREC, and other organizations to ensure that all of our partners and those involved with soccer are treated fairly and with transparency.

In regard to the Lafayette Futbol Club, we have not yet scheduled their “home games” at either facility for several reasons; 1) They already have access to “home” fields in Lafayette, 2) BREC has provided them game fields at other BREC parks, and 3) The LFC has secured a large site at Kenilworth Middle School. This approach to facilities for LFC was approved by both a BREC subcommittee and the full Commission last year.

Nonetheless, in the coming weeks, we will meet with BREC to further define our roles and responsibilities, and to, again, address this issue. Our goal is to resolve it in a manner that upholds our commitment to our members and which honors our partnership with BREC and the citizens of our community.


Sincerely,


Gary Buete - Executive Director
Bob Johannessen - President

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Do they really not have any good fields in Lafayette?

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But I maintain my stance from before. Your ability to use the SOCCER fields should be directly proportional to what you pay in as an EBR tax paying entity.

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