Dear Editor, In response to the opinion piece by Lisa Pampuch
regarding $980,000 of Morgan Hill RDA funds originally slated for a
16 field soccer complex near Sobrato High School and recently
withdrawn from that cancelled project, I submit the following:
Dear Editor,
In response to the opinion piece by Lisa Pampuch regarding $980,000 of Morgan Hill RDA funds originally slated for a 16 field soccer complex near Sobrato High School and recently withdrawn from that cancelled project, I submit the following:
The aforementioned funds were designated to encourage investment in a project which would attract business to our town. The present soccer complex on Condit Road has a proven history over 13 years of doing just that – providing a huge stream of revenue to hotels, restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets and other businesses who benefit from as many as 3,000 out-of-town guests in a single weekend (and continues on a variable scale for forty-two weekends each year). Ask the hotel owners who generates their biggest single source of income – it’s soccer families. And remember, hotel taxes and sales taxes from these guests revert to the city coffers to help keep our town running. In keeping with the original goal of utilizing these funds to encourage added business for the community, it appears to be no contest when comparing other city facilities to the present soccer complex or the future sports complex.
Yes, we need libraries and art and flowers and “egghead” facilities as Ms. Pampuch so eloquently puts it. She however blithely dismisses the Community and Cultural Center and the Community Playhouse as not fitting her definition of non-sports venues when comparing dollars spent on “jocks” vs. “eggheads.” Nor does she seem to understand that the Indoor Recreation Center will encompass much more than athletic activities – a senior center, computer rooms, non-athletic youth activities and so on. If a comparison must be made, fairness and accuracy are imperative.
Ms. Pampuch also fails to recognize that the outdoor sports complex is only partially funded, unlike the other comparative examples to which she refers. Of the estimated $7.65 million (her figure) needed to complete the facility, only $2.5 million is currently available for construction, with no future funding in sight. Additionally, only token funding from the city will be available (and for the first three years only) to operate and maintain a sports park which requires a budget of approximately $160,000 to $175,000 annually. Local non-profit sports groups are being asked to make up the difference in return for the privilege of operating the complex and providing their individual leagues a place to play. The $980,000 would go a long way toward site improvements which will encourage soccer, football, baseball, softball, volleyball, lacrosse and other sports leagues to utilize Morgan Hill’s facility – simultaneously benefiting our local businesses.
In summary, the RDA funds were originally meant to help build a sport facility which would bring revenue to Morgan Hill businesses. The application of this funding to the future sports complex would do exactly that.
Donovan Mott
Morgan Hill
Editor’s Note: The city has spent $7.65 million to purchase the land for the Outdoor Sports Complex. The total cost for phase I of the project is $10.65 million of which the city plans to contribute $2.5 million.
