DUBUQUE SOCCER COMPLEX

DUBUQUE SOCCER COMPLEX. After nearly a decade grooming and scores of high school games during fall and spring leagues, the Dubuque Soccer Complex played host to its first major state sanctioned tournament July 21-23, 2000. The "Dubuque Blowout 2000" planned on fifty teams from as far away as Kansas City, Chicago, and the Quad Cities and eighteen from Dubuque. Considered the key to holding the tournament was a recently completed pavilion in the center of the complex to provide restrooms and a concession stand. (1) Instrumental in organizing tournaments like the America's River Classic have been Dave Maiers and Charles ISENHART. (2)

In 1995 the first of seven or possibly eight fields were nearly ready for early summer use. Located on property owned by the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT near the intersection of John F. Kennedy Road and the NORTHWEST ARTERIAL, the future Complex was started in 1993. The non-profit DUBUQUE SOCCER ALLIANCE with volunteer help began work on five fields during the fall of that year. By 1995 three fields were nearly completed with another to be ready by the fall and a sixth by the spring of 1996. The remaining area was planned for two or three smaller fields and practice space. (3)

All the work was financed through donations of time and money from businesses and local soccer community. The school district later sold the land to the Alliance. Still planned in 1993 were the concession stand, maintenance building, utility connections for electricity and water, and paving a 260-car parking lot. The expected cost of the project was $750,000. (4)

Completion of several fields led first to area team competition. WAHLERT CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL won the championship of the Mississippi Valley Conference's Mississippi Division tournament in May, 1995. (5) Pete Campbell was credited for introducing youth soccer in Galena, Illinois and Dubuque. A member of the Dubuque Steamers Soccer Club for more than fifteen years, he organized the annual Steamers tournament several times. When he died unexpected of cancer, the Steamers renamed their annual event the Pete Campbell Memorial Tournament. The proceeds from the 1995 tournament were given to the Pete Campbell Memorial Fund to be used to construct soccer fields in Galena. (6) Colleges were using the fields by 1998.

In May, 2023 officials of AYSO Region announced that all its programming would be relocated to Offside Sports Complex, located at the site of the former Dubuque Driving Range. The former driving range had been purchased in April by the Iowa Sports Expo Group (ISEG). Plans called for the construction of soccer fields there which would be offered to AYSO as part of a $1 per year lease.

This relocation came about after the Dubuque Community School Board members voted in the fall of 2022 to sell the Dubuque Soccer Complex to Court One LLC, an Arizona-based company, which took possession between May 10th and 30th, 2023. AYSO officials had previously planned to maintain a presence at the Dubuque Soccer Complex and at Offside Sports Complex. A recently finalized agreement between Court One and the Dubuque Soccer Alliance which had leased the complex since 1993 included requirements that AYSO could not accept as a member of the Alliance which includes Dubuque and areas across the upper Midwest. Among the concerns was the intention of Court One to install video cameras on the property for recording and livestreaming events. AYSO officials considered the cameras as a privacy concern.

Negotiations between the Dubuque Soccer Alliance, Court One, and AYSO continued with at one point officials of all three agreeing upon a 25-year lease in which the Dubuque Soccer Alliance would use, manage and maintain the property for $1 annually. A regional commissioner for AYSO, however, said that the Alliance and Court One officials had not made certain modifications to the lease that had been requested by AYSO's lawyers at a national level. Officials of Court One and the Dubuque Soccer Alliance signed the lease. Following the vote to approve the lease, the president of the Dubuque Soccer Alliance announced that the AYSO Region 419 had been suspended as "A DSA member not in good standing."

The sale of the complex to Court One had been very controversial. School officials agreed to the sale after Court One offered $1.8 million to the $1.52 million offer made by the Alliance. (7)

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Source:

1. Leitner, Jim,"Complex Ready for Big Event," Telegraph Herald, July 22, 2000, p. 15

2. Campbell, Clete, "For Love of the Game," Telegraph Herald, August 11, 2003, p. 4

3. "Soccer Complex Nearly Ready," Telegraph Herald, January 11, 1995, p. 11

4. Ibid.

5. Leitner, Jim, "Wahlert Girls Win MVC Divisional Soccer Title," Telegraph Herald, May 28, 1995, p. 29

6. Piper, Andy, "Soccer Enthusiasts Celebrate Successful Campbell Tournament," Telegraph Herald, August 21, 1995, p. 6

7. Kelsey, Elizabeth, "AYSO Moving to New Dubuque Sports Complex," Telegraph Herald, May 9, 2023, p. 1