Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down with Mike McCluer, current Mayor of Moraga, to discuss sports fields and facilities in the community. Mike has been an advocate for finding a way to add a sports and recreation facility in Moraga.
This is a topic that dates back many years - and there have been many talks and meetings and studies done to address the community desire for these type of amenities. In my opinion, the demand is stronger now than ever, with an ever-increasing amount of youth and club sports options available. The limiting factor to many of these programs, ours included, is access to quality field or gym space. Since opening Ballplayer Field last year, we’ve been contacted by a dozen sports teams/clubs about the ability to use the field for practices - underscoring the need that programs have for space, especially artificial turf.
If you take a closer look at sports fields in particular in Lamorinda (not including school district property), Orinda has Wilder Fields, Orinda Sports Field, and Pine Grove. Lafayette has Community Park and Buckeye Baseball Fields. Moraga doesn’t have a community sports field - just Moraga Commons Park and Rancho Laguna, of which neither are realistically used for local sports programs. The 3 artificial turf fields at Wilder have an incredibly high usage rate due to the demand, and provide multiple benefits - including significant revenue for the town and recreation access to Orinda residents.
Mike pointed out the difficulty there has been in securing a location and land to be allocated for sports fields. Housing developments over the past 10 years have largely been void of usable greenspace and parks - and developers aren’t incentivized to earmark a few acres of prime real estate to go to a sports field that wouldn’t bring them anywhere near the revenue that housing would. Partnering with a developer to find a suitable location for a field or 2 that doesn’t negatively impact their development would be a potential way to bring this idea to fruition.
There are really 3 ‘types’ of sports fields - City-owned, school district, and private. There are pros and cons to each. City and school fields are mostly paid for and maintained by taxes and bond measures and operated by city/school employees. Private fields are funded by individuals or investors, but are operated by professionals with a sports background who have experience with sports programs and operations.
For several years now, I’ve been exploring all 3 options to find a way to update, improve, or bring a new sports facility to the Lamorinda area, not just for the benefit of Ballplayers, but for all youth in the community as well. It’s proven to be quite a challenge! I’ll continue to search for opportunities and see where things go from here.