Herald-Whig Staff Writer

It didn't take long for the Oakley-Lindsay Center to feel the impact from a competing indoor soccer program that's getting off the ground in Quincy.

The OLC, which has offered indoor soccer each year since 1996, canceled its November-December soccer season because of a sharp drop in participation by local teams — many of which will be playing instead at the new K&L Arena on Quincy's north end.

"Our teams were way down," said Jeff Jansen, the OLC's executive director. "So we canceled our November session."

Jansen, however, said the OLC intends to resume its indoor soccer program in January, assuming enough teams sign up.

The demise of the OLC's November-December soccer session coincides with the opening of the K&L Arena, a 50,000-square-foot building at 1600 N. 43rd that houses a permanent indoor soccer complex.

Matt Longo, who runs the soccer program for owners Greg and Debbie Shierling, said 78 teams have signed up for the arena's first 10-week season, which begins Nov. 14.

"Our goal the first year was 50 teams. We obviously exceeded that, so we're extremely happy," said Longo, who previously managed the OLC's soccer program since its inception.

Many of the teams heading to the new soccer complex formerly played at the OLC and were apparently attracted by K&L's sparkling new facilities. The complex has two soccer fields. One is smaller than a professional indoor soccer field but bigger than each of the OLC's two fields. The arena also has a smaller field geared for children and small-group practices.

Both of the fields at K&L have artificial turf with a cushiony feel that mimics real grass — unlike the harder artificial-grass surfaces at the OLC.

In recent years, 75 to 85 teams played soccer at the OLC. Jansen said only 27 or 28 teams signed up for the November session, even though the OLC dropped its team entry fee by $100 in hopes of enticing more participation.

"That wasn't really enough teams to run it," he sad. "We just didn't think it would be a profitable type of thing."

Jansen said the center has since booked some other events for November to help fill the void.

Soccer had long been a profit-making enterprise for the OLC. The center's budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year projected revenue of $64,000 from soccer team registration fees, $18,500 from soccer gate receipts and $8,000 from soccer advertising.

Now, it appears no revenue will be coming in from soccer during the November-December period. However, Jansen points out that the OLC also won't be incurring any of the usual expenses associated with running a soccer program.

"Everybody sees the profit side of it. They don't see the expense side of it," he said.

Jansen said he has "no idea" what it cost to run the soccer program. "I don't think we ever put a pencil to it," he said. But he said the center had costs for utilities, tearing down and setting up the fields, security, maintenance and hiring people to work the gate and concession stand.

"There's a lot of hidden costs there," he said. "Don't get me wrong. It was a profit center for us. But everybody thinks we made big money on it. That's not the case. It's not all just gravy. There's a lot of expense there, too."

Jansen said the loss of revenue from the cancellation of soccer will no doubt impact the OLC's budget.

"I think we'll be OK," he added. "Our convention sales were way up this year. This was probably the best year we've ever had in convention sales. And our Gems baseball revenue was up $30,000 over what we budgeted. So hopefully at the end of the year all of that evens out. It's kind of early to tell that now."

Kevin Curran, chairman of the Quincy Civic Center Authority, said the cancellation of soccer "will encourage us to adjust our current budget" for the remainder of this calendar year.

"We're hoping that winter soccer still comes through and generates the portion it normally generates for the civic center," he said.

But if soccer goes by the wayside altogether, the center will try to book some other events to make up for the revenue drop, Curran said.

"Maybe the civic center focuses on some other winter activity to bring in revenue," he said. "Obviously, putting up soccer took a lot of manpower, a lot of effort. So if that won't be there, we'll have that time and ability to do something else with those people."

Curran says it's good for Quincy to have another soccer venue in town.

"That's great for the community," he said. "We want them to do well. If they do well, that will just make soccer even that much bigger in the Quincy area, and it'll have a positive impact on the hotel-motel visits eventually when they're able to bring in tournaments."

Longo hopes the K&L program will continue to grow.

"We're very happy with the numbers that we have, and we look forward to it even getting bigger and better," he sad. "Before we know it, we might be expanding quicker than we thought."

K&L is charging $400 a team for its soccer program — the same rate the OLC charged last year. However, K&L is offering teams a 10-game season while the OLC offered eight games per session.

Longo thinks many of the teams moving to K&L were attracted by the better facilities. In addition, he said, the K&L fields are dedicated to soccer, unlike the OLC, which frequently had to tear down the fields for other scheduled events.

"What people have wanted was a soccer facility that stays open, is permanent, that won't be torn down," he said. "We won't have to take long breaks. People know that they're going to play a game every seven days."

Longo said local soccer teams "were ready for a change" and were eager to try out the new complex.

"I think that we're offering a newer product, a better surface," he said. "It's a softer and probably maybe a little more safer type of facility as far as the surface goes. It's a newer facility, and people were ready for that."

Jansen agrees a lot of teams were eager to try out the new soccer venue.

"It's just like a new restaurant or a new business. Everybody wants to check it out and see what it's like. We understand that," he said.

"If we have to get out of the soccer business, we're willing to do that. We provided that as a community service. There was a need for it. So if we need to go toward more conventions or activities, we can do that. That's why we're flexible. That's the way it's always been."

 

Contact Staff Writer Edward Husar at ehusar@whig.com or (217) 221-3378