October 20, 2022
GHSC Families,
We hope everyone had a good first half of the season and we’re all looking forward to the second half beginning this Saturday.
It has come to our attention that the Sacramento Soccer Alliance (SSA) has released a video regarding sports field allocation by the City of Sacramento, Department of Youth Programs and Community Enrichment (YPCE).
Unfortunately, the video contains significant omissions, as well as misinformation.
Origin Story
SSA was formed in 2010 by Greenhaven Soccer (GHSC) and Land Park Soccer (LPSC) to be the select (non-recreational; now referred to as competitive) program affiliated with GHSC and LPSC. The key word is “program”. In essence, GHSC and LPSC were the holding companies and SSA was a subsidiary. The founders reinforced that by having GHSC and LPSC perform certain administrative functions, the most important and illustrative being field administration.
Permitting
From 2010 to June of 2021, GHSC and LPSC permitted fields for their competitive program, the SSA. GHSC permitted fields for the SSA like we did for our other programs. All fields used by SSA during the time they were a program of GHSC were permitted under the GHSC name, using our insurance. As such, we assumed all risk, responsibility and liability associated with being the permitting entity. Based on that fact and consistent with long standing YPCE policy, GHSC is considered the historical user of Bahnfleth Park and Conlin Youth Sports Complex. That designation has been reviewed and reinforced by YPCE and other City officials.
All programs in an organization pay for their operational costs, including permitting, mowing, lining and enhancements. SSA was no different. Like all of our other programs, SSA paid for their operational costs.
Dissolution
In May of 2021, the GHSC Board of Directors unanimously made the decision to dissolve the relationship with SSA. The decision was difficult but necessary, and was the culmination of events, actions and statements on the part of certain SSA members that could have adversely impacted GHSC’s ability to continue operations. Ultimately, the public declaration by an SSA board member (that went unchallenged and uncorrected by SSA leadership) that SSA was a completely independent entity, with no affiliation with GHSC or LPSC, and that GHSC was inappropriately sub-leasing fields to SSA, placed us in a vulnerable position and potentially jeopardized GHSC’s ability to continue operations. In order to preserve an organization that has been serving our community for 46 years, we had no choice but to dissolve the relationship. During prior efforts to preserve the relationship, GHSC repeatedly stated that should the relationship end, we would retain historical user status at all of the fields we permitted.
Clarifications
It is important to note that contrary to statements made in the video, we did not then immediately form our competitive program. The idea for a comp program was not discussed within the GHSC Board until months later and had absolutely nothing to do with the dissolution. Moreover, our two competitive teams are using Renfree Park for games and trainings.
The video mentions that GHSC has use of nine fields. What it omits is that we have 1,150 players. SSA has use of six fields for considerably fewer players.
Throughout the video, there are references to the loss of Bahnfleth and the desire for its return. In April of this year, in an effort at compromise and ending the acrimony, GHSC gave notice to YPCE that we would voluntarily relinquish historical user status at Bahnfleth for 2023 and beyond. On July 13th, YPCE notified both GHSC and SSA that for 2023 GHSC would have priority use of Conlin Field 1 and 2, and SSA would have priority use of Bahnfleth. On July 24th, the SSA Board of Directors notified their members that they had regained use of Bahnfleth for 2023.
Conclusion
Several GHSC board members have children who play in both GHSC and SSA. Prior to the dissolution of the relationship, we worked long and hard with SSA leadership to try and preserve the relationship. We have taken great pains to keep the subsequent relationship civil and avoid adding unnecessary drama to our respective members’ lives. The dissolution, while necessary, was a sad end to our decade long relationship with the SSA. Post dissolution, we met with SSA leadership to discuss the field situation. We were unable to come to an agreement. The GHSC Board of Directors cares about all of the children in our community and we remain steadfast in our conviction that our actions have been fair and equitable.
Sincerely,
GHSC Board of Directors