January 19th 2006

2006: The year of recreation sports

Dennis Wyatt

Manteca is on the verge of more than doubling available recreational sports venues ranging from soccer to a BMX course.

Sixteen new venues have been added to Manteca’s recreation repertoire by mid-2006. That means a lot for youth and adult sports enthusiasts who haven’t seen a major municipal recreation complex created in 20 years despite the city increasing its population by 55 percent.

It also may mean a lot for the pocketbook of Manteca workers and businesses as well as the cash-strapped city general fund coffers that cover the tab for everything from police and fire services to street repairs.

The Manteca Convention & Visitors Bureau has strengthened the Manteca Sports Commission’s ranks as it gears up to make bids for major amateur sporting events in the coming years.

An amateur sporting event — such as the two-day youth soccer tournament conducted last February — can easily infuse $300,000 into the Manteca economy through motel, food, gas, and entertainment expenditures by the out-of-town participants.

Two major additions to the city park system — Woodward Park with eight regulation soccer fields (including two fields being lighted this year) and the Big League Dreams sports complex with six softball fields, an indoor sports pavilion, two soccer fields, and an outdoor arena soccer field — will give Manteca the ability to aggressively go after bigger youth and amateur regional tournaments that tend to draw hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of weekend participants, parents, and fans.

The city is also reviewing plans for a major bicycle BMX facility that AKF Development will help put in place as part of its Spreckels Park development agreement in the 10-acre storm retention basin storm retention at Moffat Boulevard and Spreckels Avenue.

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