Move will make ‘Youth Academy’ less expensive for players
The long-running Bethlehem Soccer Club is instituting a new format for its competitive teams that club officials say will keep costs to players down and open up the program to more users.
The Youth Academy at BSC will replace the Premiere and Travel programs for competitive players 13 and older. Players will still have professional, United States Soccer Federation-licensed coaches, and still compete against other area teams. But starting this year, they’ll all be paying the same price.
Before, every team had a different cost associated with it because the team expenses were split between the players. Players on small teams shouldered a larger bill, and were thus unlikely to grow. By tying the teams together, the club has been able to find cost savings, said club representative Bill Yates.
`What had been a very disparate cost structure is now leveled out amongst all teams,` Yates said. `It doesn’t burden small teams, and therefore the idea is that it will encourage people to come play regardless of the size of the team.`
Club officials hope players from Bethlehem and beyond will do just that. Under the premiere league structure, players would pay between $1,100 and $1,500 per year. That cost will be a standardized $900 at the Youth Academy.
Setting that price point will hopefully attract a new group of players, Yates continued, both locally and from around the area. The premiere program usually draws 150 to 200 players, but the club hopes more families will see the benefit of the academy.
`Our goal will be to increase the size, but more importantly the quality of the program,` Yates said. `Making the whole program more attractive, more cost efficient, more competitive, would be a draw for the greater Capital District.`
The academy program is basically a yearlong affair. Teams will start playing in November at indoor facilities.
The soccer club is on its way to building its own indoor fields at the soccerplex on Wemple Road. Tentative plans first came before the Town of Bethlehem in February, and since then the club has been moving toward hiring a fundraising consultant for a drive that will hopefully begin in early 2011, said club President Mark Sweeney. The club plans to build the roughly $3.5 million project with donations and financing.
`The community support for the project is going to be absolutely key,` Sweeney said. `We’re looking at making this something for everybody.`
The preliminary plan calls for a building that can contain three large regulation sized fields, one slightly smaller field, and a 350-by-250-foot indoor facility that would contain enough space for offices and an additional full sized field, which could be split up into smaller sections for other uses.
The club has also been looking at locating the facility close to the Thruway instead of in the center of the soccerplex property, to better make use of the space there. That would require cooperation with Verizon, since the company has fiber-optic lines running underground there.
Renting out space at other facilities costs teams between $50,000 and $75,000 every year, according to the club. Once constructed the facility could also produce revenue for the club through rentals.
`We’re still going for the full project. Our initial feedback is that it is possible,` said Sweeney.
Registration for the Youth Academy is open until Oct. 1. There are three age groups: 13- and 14-year-olds, 15- and 16-year-olds and 17- and 18-year-olds. The club will continue to offer a travel soccer program from ages eight to 12, and its popular recreational program ` a noncompetitive league ` starting at prekindergarten.
For more information and to register, visit www.bethlehemsoccerny.com.“
