NASL Meeting Minutes - July 21st, 2004

Background information only - not a part of the board meeting:

The fee is based upon 15 players per team @ $20 each for teams U12 and above. It was assumed that each U12 and above team would have at least 15 players. Correspondingly the U11 and U10 were assumed to have a minimum of 12 players on a team (they play 8v8) and the U9s would have 9 players (they play 6v6). Most teams will have more than these numbers of players on their teams.

The board understands that many teams have already set their budgets for the fall season and we regret the timing and apologize. However, several factors required that we make this decision now rather than waiting another year.

The NASL Board has been discussing a suitable field development fee for more than a year. This was not an easy decision, but the final vote was unanimous. It was felt that there should be some way of having clubs do their fair share of field development. The issue was brought to a head in Huntsville where after the recent work at Merrimack Park there is expected to be no money in the budget for further lighting or field development for at least five years. In Madison there is a need for lights. In Decatur there is a need for lighted fields and with the new Southwest soccer complex there will be a need for goals, nets and other soccer equipment.
None of the clubs or teams in North Alabama own their own facilities. As such they are at the mercy of local politicians and city governments for all field development and maintenance. By providing a check to the local governments for use in field development, soccer entities (NASL, FOSNA, clubs and teams) can show that they are willing to cultivate relationships with local governments and parks and rec department officials to show that they have a common goal and are “doing their part”. Without donations, we (soccer forces) are always fighting for limited resources with other sports. Those sports are also providing matching funds to build concession stands, sod fields, build fences, etc.
And because of tight budgets all city governments are under increasing pressure to help those who help themselves. There has been a huge increase in “matching funds” as a way of doing business. If soccer clubs want the cities to do something for soccer they should be willing to do some of the work themselves. This "field development fee" is a way of doing that and ensuring that this is not a one time shot – city officials know that they can expect the local travel soccer clubs to help each year.
Local governments were putting pressure their parks and recreational departments to make travel teams and leagues to “pay their own way”. Many have already put policies into effect that charge travel baseball and softball teams a “per game” fee for use of their fields. These baseball and softball teams have asked that they be treated the same as soccer teams, which heretofore (in our area) have not been charged fees. Historically travel or competitive soccer has been treated the same as recreational leagues. That is quickly changing. City governments have figured out that many NASL soccer teams have players on their teams who live outside their tax jurisdiction and thus are using city fields without providing the needed tax base to support those fields. In many areas of the country (and increasingly in our area) cities are passing tough “Field Use” policies that could severely limit the growth of our sport. By providing this annual donation we have a chance to halt these policies before they are instituted.
FOSNA is used because they are a tax-exempt organization. As such, FOSNA can raise money from sources that the NASL cannot. Johnny Childress at FOSNA has agreed that their financial books will be open and available so that any and all interested parties can see where the money comes from and what it is being used for. The ultimate goal is that FOSNA will be able to raise additional funds from sources other than NASL and will ultimately provide more money back to each community than each community’s teams contribute. They have guaranteed that every community will at least get their original donations back in a timely fashion to be used locally.
Without organizations such as FOSNA and NASL we are merely a confederation of loosely related teams with contrasting goals. Through our united efforts we can achieve much more than we can achieve as individual clubs, teams or cities. FOSNA and NASL will be happy to go to bat for each and every NASL club or team when they work with their local governments.
The major concern we have heard is, “Why should we go through FOSNA or NASL instead of collecting our money and giving it directly to the city parks and recreation department?”

The answer is that a united effort is much stronger than what individual clubs or teams - who often are at odds with each other - could achieve. And with FOSNA and NASL you have an organization that can provide continuity, which will ensure that these are not sporadic fund raising efforts. If a specific person who was in charge of fund raising one year is gone the next, the funds will still be raised using this method rather than dying for lack of leadership. In fact, this is the reason many clubs joined NASL to begin with. NASL has the power and numbers to get things done where clubs and teams might fail.

To allay some of the concerns each community club/team will be given the check to present to their city. Your club/team will still get the “Good-will” and publicity of your efforts when you present the check to your local government. You will still be able to earmark it for your own specific project in your local community.

NEXT NASL BOARD MEETING:
The next NASL board meeting will be the AGM on August 10th, 2004