Well school has started which means no more swimming at the pool till after 10PM and so now maybe I'll have some time (and interest) to write some stuff. It's been a distracting summer with all the kids, a DIY disaster that I'm in the middle of, and family member that's losing a fight to cancer.
Before I get into the $40M proposed Northland soccer complex, I want to plug the Park Hill Soccer fundraiser for this fall. If you enjoy soccer, you might enjoy helping out the kids playing with some updated stuff that the school district doesn't pick up. You can contribute here and if anyone out there is a local business that would like to sponsor, drop me a note and I'll see what I can do to plug your wares.
Anyways, if you hadn't heard, the Platte County Economic Development Corporation hired Canyon Research Southwest, Inc. to look at the market demand for a soccer complex on the west side of Platte Purchase and between MO 152 and NW 100th Street. There were some interesting tidbits in the report. These are screen shots right from the November 2017 report.
Now you might ask why the Platte County EDC would pay for a report like this?
Maybe the EDC is getting tired of watching some of the 333,000+ people in Clay and Platte drive all the way down to Oklahoma, er OPKS, to play soccer and also all the traveling teams keeping their hotel rooms full on the weekends when business travel is light.
The report also listed some data on Platte County major private sector employers which I found interesting. Riverside has a heck of an employment base for a town with just over 3,000 residents.
I wouldn't get your hopes up on burning gas heading to Oklahoma however as the biggest obstacle to this happening isn't coming up with the $40M to build it. Money or lack thereof hasn't stopped a lot of things from happening over the years. You can read through the entire 57 page report here on the Platte County EDC website.
I'd also recommend reading Valerie Verkamp's 11/29/17 write up in the Platte County Landmark. I don't have any neat looking renderings handy and even if I did, this is all conceptual and subject to change so it'd be eye candy only.
Lastly, I'll put one more plug in for my oldest and the Park Hill Soccer fundraiser. I've not one to let kids think that money grows on trees. My oldest worked his tail off earlier this year to earn money to go on a mission trip by refereeing basketball/soccer and doing yard work for folks around the neighborhood. Unfortunately Menard's won't hire anyone under the age of 16 so I can't make him work there (yet) which is too bad because he could ride his bike to work. He's got the unfortunate luck of being my kid and gets a lot of "character building." If any of you are looking for kids to do yard work this fall, let me know and I might have a whole herd ready to go. Their character can always use a good "building."
This fundraiser isn't for just him and the support goes to help the entire 70+ kids on the team and will buy items that will last for years. You want to make sure our kids have the proper equipment to avoid injuries unlike this guy.........
Clip credit to Studio C.
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