Parks Department Ending Night Soccer at Nike Field on Stanton

Turn on the lights! That is the grassroots message posed to the Parks Department regarding their decision to end night soccer at the Nike field in Sara D. Roosevelt Park (where the annual Showdown is held). The NYC Soccer Collective is incensed that the government has suddenly decided to revoke lighting permits, effective October 1. Local players are pissed.

According to a petition making the rounds, Parks Department officials decided to shut the lights since “it seems like the abiliity to share the lights are not working…we will no longer [allow] any groups to use lights at this location.” Basically, the crux of the issue is whether the Soccer Collective was obligated to share the portable lighting equipment with other groups, which is actually quite expensive to maintain (more than $3,000 per month). Below is an excerpt from the petition, currently carrying some 350 signatories:

The league runs 6 nights a week on Nike Field with 47 teams (500+ players) in the divisions which play there, making up the bulk of the income for this league.

The league will not be able to sustain itself financially and will likely have to completely fold without this field space.

NYC Soccer Collective has supplied light for every group and organization which has ever inquired and always help with field space whenever possible, despite the fact that it is an enormous amount of added work for the owner who runs this business by herself.

It seems this decision was made based on recent complaints by another sports league who NYC Soccer Collective had not yet agreed to supply with lights for this Fall season.

Nike’s caged astroturf field, situated between Rivington and Stanton, has hosted nighttime matches since the founding of NYC Soccer Collective in 2003. As the first co-ed league in the city, the group approached the Parks Department years ago when securing a proper field to accommodate the large number of teams was unsuccessful. It was then proposed to secure permits for lighting the premises during dark hours when the field otherwise went unused.

Read the full petition here; and then check out our “Soccer After Dark” haiku…