Archive: Sports

The Lansing Recreation Department Youth Football program has been a bit of an orphan in the sense that the Town doesn't have dedicated football fields for them to play on.  Football players have been limited to two home games per year because of the complexities of scheduling and reconfiguring existing ballfields.  If a plan Town Board members were shown at their Wednesday meeting goes smoothly it is possible that the players will have their own field as soon as this Fall's season.  "I know they're working on the cost analysis for it right now," says Lansing Supervisor Scott Pinney.  "If they can raise the money in the next few months they could actually have this field to play on in the Fall."


Earlier this year Pinney floated a plan to actually move the existing ballfields across the street to a 150 acre plot of land that the Town owns, but is restricted by New York State for recreational use only.  If the fields were relocated it would clear the way for a commercial town center where the existing fields are on unrestricted land.  But when a drawing of a hypothetical master plan was presented to board members a few weeks ago they voted it down.  Councilman Bud Shattuck says the vote went against the plan because of planning and other costs to the town that a master plan would require.

"I think it was a combination of things," Pinney says.  "I think the main one was that the Youth Football Committee was already looking at building a field off of town property.  So we already had people trying to get the funding in place.  Nobody on the Town Board knows of anybody trying to raise money for any of the other fields.  So we decided to just show what we can proceed with at this time.  If we have soccer players , baseball players, lacrosse players, or whoever that wants to add to this I think the Town Board would be very open to it."

The master plan showed how multiple baseball, soccer, and football fields could be laid out on the property with an access road, walking paths, tennis and basketball courts.  Some of the fields were imagined as multi-purpose, such as baseball fields that could be reconfigured for soccer.  It also imagined a shop that might be used to sell concessions, bathrooms, parking lots and walking paths.


Pinney now says that showing that plan might lead people to believe that the town would be funding the project, or parts of it.  But he has always said that his idea depends on private fundraising to construct the new fields over a long period of time.  "If you only have funding for one thing when you're showing a plan for a huge project there could be a misconception that the huge plan is going to be paid for by the taxpayers in the town," he says.  "We have some kind of master plan of an idea.  But you can't really finalize that until you know where the funding is coming from."

The new plan simply shows a football field, an access road and parking areas, as well as extras such as bleachers, a bathroom/storage building, playground and pavilion.  This more targeted project will be funded by monies raised by people involved in The Lansing Recreation Youth Football program.  That group had been considering building a field across the street from the Central Fire Station on Ridge Road, until Pinney offered them the option of building it on town land.  Doing so fits in with his larger vision to eventually consolidate all the town ballfields into that one location.

Recreation Director Steve Colt has reportedly said that he will try to schedule five home games per team if the field is constructed.  That could mean 15 or more home games in Lansing in future seasons.  Pinney says that even if the whole project isn't built at once it could still mean a football field this year.  "I'm assuming they would at least try to get the money for the roadway, at least one parking lot, and for the field at a minimum," he says.  "The more money they get they would add bleachers, bathrooms, and other things to it."

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