Courtesy: The Eureka Reporter


Inside Sports moves closer to new arena

By RAY HAMILL

With the popularity of futsal on the rise in Humboldt County, local fans of the sport are hoping for some good news in the coming months.

Inside Sports, a local non-profit organization that oversees the Humboldt County futsal leagues, has been committed to building an all-purpose indoor sports arena in the area since the Mad River Indoor Arena closed its doors six years ago.

And, according to Inside Sports president Tom Rector, the organization is about to take a giant step toward achieving that goal.

“The plans are in the concept mode and have been in the concept mode for several years,” Rector said. “The zoning has to be approved before we can start, but we’re getting real close to that now.”

There have been several proposed sites for the arena, all of them close to the Samoa Cookhouse in Samoa, and Inside Sports is hoping to have the zoning for its latest proposed site approved within the next six months, although Rector added “it’s a government process, so it’s hard to predict.”

The extent of what the new arena will offer remains uncertain until a site can be approved, but, according to Rector, it will definitely include a hard and soft surface, as well as a possible track and climbing wall.

“Any sport that uses courts and nets and any sport that uses hard or soft surfaces will be able to use the arena,” Rector said.

After zoning is approved, the planning process will take approximately six months, but Inside Sports has already secured a two-year grant to fund a position to oversee the project.

The total cost of the arena is estimated to be between $3 million and $5 million and will be funded, according to Rector, between grants and community support.

Rector also stressed this is not just a pipe dream.

“This is serious,” he said. “This is not a group of volunteers in their spare time. It’s not a little program. It’s serious.”

That will likely come as good news to fans of the sport on the North Coast, with the popularity of futsal, a form of indoor soccer played on a basketball court, as high as ever.

In its sixth year of operation, the futsal league now runs year-round and this spring expanded beyond its Samoa Gymnasium base to Scotia for the first time, with a record 400-plus members registering for the latest session, including 133 in Scotia.

The league runs several sessions each year, with games six days a week and the heaviest enrollment in the winter and spring. It is also open to players of all ages and levels of competition.

Rector sees the new arena as being particularly beneficial to the area’s youth, especially during the winter months when the rain limits the amount of outdoor activities available.

“In this day and age so many sports-type programs that used to be a part of the school system have been taken away, and Inside Sports is bringing these type of programs back into the community,” Rector said.

For more information on the local futsal leagues or Inside Sports, log on to www.insidesports.ws.





Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com