For Delta’s soccer purists, it will be a welcome sight.
While the City of Delta has made a significant investment with five synthetic sports fields now in operation for year-round play, it hasn’t ignored some of its traditional natural grass venues either.
Immediately across Highway 17A from its impressive new covered Ladner Sports Court, is a field that will be re-opening this spring following extensive renovations.
Association Park, located on 60B Street, has long been used by adult league teams for spring season play. It also has been utilized in early September, but typically is closed for the rest of the fall and winter campaign once the rainy season arrives. That’s about to change as a year-long upgrading project begins to wind down.
“This was one of our major field overhauls (drainage and irrigation systems) for 2022,” explained City of Delta Parks, Rec and Culture director Trent Reid. “There is still a bit of work to do with respect to fencing installations behind the road and along the road frontage, it will be open in April of this year for the spring soccer programs.”
Reid said the field can also be added into the fall and winter season mix for the South Delta United youth soccer club. Typically, Upper Holly is the only grass field available at that time of year in Ladner.
“With the upgrades, we see no reason why it shouldn’t be available year round, outside of those periodic closures due to maintenance/wear and weather that all natural fields are subjected to,” he said.
The project is part of Delta Parks, Recreation and Culture’s detailed Strategic Work Plan.
“Delta continually works with community sport organizations to identify small field projects required to ensure playable natural grass fields for a variety of sports.
“Annual projects typically involve minor drainage system repairs or replacements, replacement of turf in areas impacted by localized flooding, regrading requirements or invasive species. As with other infrastructure, natural grass fields require either full or partial renovations on a periodic basis. Partial renovations involve components of subsurface/civil engineering work, drainage, irrigation or turf replacement, while a full renovation involves all of these components,” said a recent Delta staff report to council.
