City Eyes Field Lease for French Soccer

San Clemente may start negotiations with an elite French soccer club to build a $25 million facility on eight undeveloped acres at Richard T. Steed Park, following a Tuesday vote by the San Clemente Beaches, Parks and Recreation Commission.
The French Soccer Institute is made up of retired French professional soccer players and coaches. If an eventual deal were approved -- still a long way off, said city staffers -- San Clemente could become home to one of only a few top European soccer academies on the West Coast.
“We think we’re working with a reputable group,” said Beaches, Parks and Recreation Director Sharon Heider. “There would have to be some public benefit.”
She said the vote was only to find out if the commission was interested in the concept -- no specific deal was on the table Tuesday, though commissioners and staff discussed some possible provisions.
A potential deal could include a long-term lease of the parkland for the institute to develop its multi-million-dollar facility -- which would include two soccer fields, according to staff reports. Also included in the deal could be a proposal that the institute spend $80,000 to $120,000 to develop interim fields at the meadows adjacent to Vista Hermosa Sports park to use in the few years the institute was building its Steed Park facility.
When the permanent soccer center was done, the Vista Hermosa fields would revert to the city for use under the same conditions as any other municipal field.
Most of the commissioners were enthusiastic about the prospect, but Commissioner Tom Wicks voted against the proposal. He said it was his opinion that reserving one of the last patches of sports field land in San Clemente for use by a private group of top players didn’t serve the public interest.
“To use it for some purpose like this is to limit our future,” Wicks said. “My main concern is that this would be for a very elite group of soccer players, and kind of take the last piece of open space we can develop anything we want on... It doesn’t meet the needs of the general public.”
Commissioner Dagmar Foy, who has a background in youth soccer, was excited at the prospect of the French Soccer Institute setting up shop in San Clemente. She said similar European academies have just begun to pop up in the U.S., shifting the model for shuttling top youth players into the pros.
In the U.S., youth soccer feeds into high school programs, which then feed into college soccer which acts as a farm for the pros. But in Europe, Foy said, there’s more of a club-based system that can shepherd excellent soccer players through their entire early careers.
“This would be a link to professional soccer,” she said. “It’s not just for elite players -- they take kids [under] five and put kids in an academy. They have rec-level teams to elite. I think it’s really exciting that it’s here.”
Other commissioners echoed her excitement on the potential for the institute to excel in San Clemente, and Commission Chairman Steve Strenger pointed out that a potential deal would bring in revenue for the parks department that would help the agency maintain other fields throughout the city.
Wicks was the sole commissioner dissenting, while Commissioners Michael Smith and Chris McCormack were absent.