City of Mesa voters will soon have the choice to vote on Questions four, five and six.  These questions related to the development of a 24-field sports complex, which includes soccer and lacrosse fields, as well as championship stadiums for both sports, a concert lawn, and a multi-court field complex.

Mesa Plays will be a destination driver attracting 349,000+ athletes and their families to the city of Mesa. With the primary property tax, Mesa needs these visitor dollars to keep up and improve the quality of life for all residents. #MesaPlays #YESon456 pic.twitter.com/Ry2O1LteXa

— Mesa Plays (@MesaPlaysAZ) August 24, 2018

Michael Miller, executive director for Mesa Soccer Club, says the complex is needed because of the short supply of fields for active families.  “We have families that are travelling into Phoenix, into Tempe just for practice.” Mesa Vice mayor, in an interview with the Arizona Republic, noted that Mesa is short up to 1,000 hours of week of lighted-field use.  “We know there will be a lot of public usage of that (complex).

The Mesa Plays Campaign, chaired by Rich Adams of Visit Mesa, a non-profit tourism organization, points out that active kids are less likely to be obese, have higher test scores, are more likely to go to college and be more productive at work.  Most of all, active kids turn into active adults, who pass along those traits to their children.

The full Mesa Plays initiative is broken into three separate votes:

Question 4

Authorizes the city to fund 61.2 million dollars of athletic fields (as well as other funds for parks, paths and cultural improvements) by the use of targeted capital bonds.  These funds also include funding for parks in other areas of Mesa.

The bonds would be paid off using a secondary property tax.

Question 5

Authorizes the city to spend the funds necessary to construct the Mesa Plays Youth Sports & Event Complex at a cost of $30 million dollars.

Question 6

Authorizes the City of Mesa to increase the lodging tax by 1% from 5% to 6% for the purpose of promoting tourism.  Funds for the Mesa Plays complex are expected to be repaid in part with these funds.  This would increase the overall tax rate to 15.02%.  For comparison, the City of Chandler rate is 10.17%, Town of Gilbert 10.8%, and City of Tempe 14.07%.

Opposition

While there is broad support from community and business leaders, opponents point to the potential for light pollution, traffic, decreased property value, and increased crime.  Justin Curran, in a facebook post, notes that the undeveloped land has usable trails for horses, areas for disc golf, and natural habitat for wildlife.

My View

Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the nation.  Not far behind, however, is lacrosse.  This facility will help to alleviate the pressure to find fields on both of these sports, and give a centralized location for national tournaments.  The championship stadiums will give a big boost to local amateur teams like MSC United and Sporting AZ FC, who have to borrow, beg and steal to find appropriate facilities for league and US Open Cup matches.  Traffic impact on the surrounding community is minimized, as the 202 exit at Brown leads directly into the facility.  Light pollution is a problem for the small neighborhoods to the south and to the east, however they already deal with this issue from the Red Mountain Baseball Complex as well as the Red Mountain Soccer Complex.

This facility is a huge step forward for soccer in Arizona.  It will bring great talent to the state, and allow programs at Arizona State, Benedictine, Park University, Embry Riddle, Ottawa University, and Arizona Christian University to scout players on their home turf.

Residents of the City of Mesa are notoriously conservative when it comes to spending.  Decades of this conservative decision making have failed to attract visitors and employers, and the town has not kept up with East Valley rivals Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert.  I hope the voters do not continue this archaic way of thinking, and will make an investment in supporting local soccer, and will instead vote YES on Questions 4, 5 and 6.