Dear Editor:
North Vancouver Football Club has seen considerable growth since the pandemic. This fall season, NVFC, the North Shore’s largest sports organization, registered 3,800 players across all age groups. It was a new record for the organization and a 10-per-cent increase over last season.
Including girls and women, the numbers are 6,700 players annually in North Vancouver. Currently we rank third amongst all Lower Mainland municipalities in the number of youth soccer players, but dead last as a ratio of turf fields to registered players. The addition of Inter River next year will not change this.
Overall across the DNV and CNV, 23 per cent of NVFC players still practice on gravel equally dispersed across both municipalities. Teams lucky enough to practice on turf have had their time slots reduced to one hour in many cases, such is the demand. On some evenings, there as many as eight teams, up to 96 players, on a single field, making it almost impossible to conduct a proper practice.
Meanwhile, population growth on the North Shore continues. According to Statistics Canada, in the five years leading up to 2023, the number of people on the North Shore grew 7.4 per cent. Housing units and new home starts in the CNV alone are expected to reach 17,000 over the next 10 years, as reported in the North Shore News on March 1, 2024. Demand for recreational space and suitable playing fields will only increase.
Currently there are only three turf fields in the City of North Vancouver. Carson Graham and Sutherland do not even have benches for teams to sit on. The CNV has not even entertained a discussion on fields since the Fenn Burdett conversion in 2017. The DNV must continue to include turf conversions in its financial plan. In less than two years, the World Cup will be here. Demand to play soccer will only increase. The time for councils to act is now.
Stuart Ince
President, NVFC
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