By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
July 4, 2012

During its June 29 grand opening, the 9th and Van Brunt Athletic Fields had already become a community gathering spot.

Some flocked to the steady beat of the mariachi band while others cheered along the sidelines, watching the youngsters play soccer. There were toddlers, senior citizens, mothers, fathers.

Those painted lines on the fields would not divide the community, but serve to unite it, Kansas City Mayor Sly James said.

Creating this Northeast amenity was years in the making and came to fruition because of a community effort, Kansas City City Council member Scott Wagner said.

Sitting on a 12.4 acre site, the athletic fields include a new artificial turf soccer field, two natural turf practice fields, decorative and stadium lighting, an amphitheater/event plaza that seats 360, concession building with restrooms, paved parking lot, a 1/2-mile walking trail surrounding the fields and landscaping. Other improvements include a brick wall sound barrier and new sidewalks and curbs along 9th Street.

“I never thought we would have amenities like this in the area,” said Sheffield Neighborhood Association President Mark Morales. “This is something that I would have cherished at a young age. I would have loved a park like this. This is quite the needed asset here for the neighborhood.”

Before the transformation, the 12.4 acre site once housed the headquarters of the Area Transportation Authority as well as its street cars. When ATA ceased using the land, the intersection became an eyesore, said Mark McHenry, director of the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department.

“It was kind of a wasteland up here,” McHenry said. “It was a very utilitarian looking place.”

ATA left behind broken asphalt and growing weeds. It became a place to dump and an area that attracted negative activity, said Kansas City City Council member Jermaine Reed.

“It’s certainly a good day to see the way it looks now,” he said.

McHenry told Northeast News the department has already received numerous phone calls praising the looks of the new athletic complex.

McHenry also stressed the number of community, city and federal partners that made the athletic complex possible. Approximately $2.6 million were invested in the site and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II was instrumental in securing the federal funds to build the site, he said. The city’s Public Improvements Advisory Committee (PIAC) also contributed dollars and The Don Bosco Centers helped secure a grant with the U.S. Soccer Foundation to install high quality artificial turf.

“You’re not going to find a soccer field anywhere in the U.S. built for kids as nice as this one,” Cleaver said.

Nick Garcia, director of the Northeast Sports Alliance (NESA), is already planning to use the fields in August. NESA will host camps and clinics on the site as well as its regular soccer season. Age groups will include elementary, middle school, high school and 18 to 25-year-olds.

“It’s hard to believe this thing’s finally come to fruition,” he said. “It’s finally here. To see everybody playing and doing all this cool stuff, that’s what it’s about. You can already see it’s a sense of belonging and a sense of community.”