Fredericksburg Soccer, Other Groups Challenge Turf Rental Fees

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The Fredericksburg Soccer Club plans to challenge the Spotsylvania County School Board for the rental fees on the county's turf fields. The soccer club will attend the virtual school board meeting on Feb. 8 to voice their displeasure with the cost to rent fields from the county's high schools.

The Fredericksburg Soccer Club and Academy Futbol Club said that they have faced fees of over $200 an hour to rent a turf fields at one of the county's high schools. The groups said that the fees have prevented any groups from using the fields regularly, according to a joint press release.

Marcello Manzano is the founder and executive director of Fredericksburg Soccer Club, Incorporated. "For the past 15 months, the school board and administration have stonewalled us and other organizations through these high fees," Manzano said in a press release. "We have attempted to reason with them in order to come up with a system that would provide equitable access for all the youth of our county; we have explained to them how the fields sit empty and we are a ready-and-willing costumer if the fees are affordable. Fredericksburg Soccer Club and other groups have all but been ignored."

The county completed its first of five new turf fields in the Fall of 2019. The turf fields have been rented twice, according to the soccer clubs' press release. The five turf fields at Spotsylvania County High Schools were funded by a public bond referendum in 2014.

"It forces us and sometimes the parents to come out of pocket to rent the only facility we can afford which is the Fredericksburg Field house whose rates have increased," said Deon Heggins of the Academy Futbol Club. "Other than this our only option at this time is to have everyone travel another 30 to 60 minutes to Stafford where we can rent outdoor turf for $50 an hour."

The soccer clubs have set up a website that outlines their concerns about the county's fees. They also provide a resource detailing the fees at comparable turf fields across the state.

Monday's Spotsylvania School Board meeting can be watched live or on demand online.

In a press release, Heggins encouraged community members to write to the school board and demand that the facilities be made more accessible to the county's young athletes. "What we have to ask ourselves," Heggins said. "Is if we didn't build these fields for the kids then who did we build them for?"