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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The Washington DC metro area is in desperate need of more turf fields especially in Montgomery County. While soccer is becoming more and more popular for kids, I’m sure it would be very useful for other sports too. [/quote]

Yup...unfortunately, Montgomery County cares far more about business than quality of life. 
Every parcel of land big enough for fields is immediately directed towards developers to build a few more houses. 
One Rockville council member wanted to redevelop the dilapidated Redgate Golf course into a sports complex, and was basically laughed out of the building. [/quote]

Really?  How do we get them to change their mindset?

[/quote]

$$$

Real estate can pay a lot more.  To match it you'd have some really expensive soccer fields (i.e., fees that are really high to support the cost).[/quote]

While I agree with you regarding the high cost, Germantown Soccerplex successfully did it. Sure beats the wasteful land that is currently being used as Redgate golf course. MSI paid millions (~$5M) to MCPS to build turf fields at Whitman HS, Einstein HS & Julius West MS. [/quote]

The Soccerplex struggles financially. They walk a knife edge between keeping fees high enough to pay the bills and not so high as to drive people elsewhere. And that's just to cover the operating expense, the original cost of acquiring and improving the land was financed through tens of millions of dollars of donations. From Wikipedia:
[quote]
The Maryland SoccerPlex was completed in 2000 with $15 million raised by a group of Montgomery County, Maryland soccer parents led by Discovery Communications chairman John Hendricks and his wife Maureen (also co-founders of Washington Freedom soccer team) through private donations and government-backed bonds.[2] It was built as a private-public partnership between the Maryland Soccer Foundation, created in 1997 to build and operate the complex,[2] and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.[3]

However, initial revenues fell short of projections and the foundation took on $14 million in debt, nearly triple the amount projected, and the Hendricks donated a further $6 million in 2005 to stabilize funding and build additional fields.
[/quote]

It's not a sustainable model.

People don't seem to understand that fields cost money and that for the most part soccer parents are unwilling or unable to pay for them. [/quote]

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