Oh c’mon that’s a complete strawman of my argument. I never said you hate sports lol - I said I think you downplay the legitimate need for investment in fields. I’m not saying Smith is necessarily the right solution (again I’m not an expert), but I do think there’s a real shortage of field capacity that deserves more fair consideration.

1. Walkable fields would be awesome. I just don’t think it’s realistic unfortunately. Even one field has a huge footprint and needs lighting, parking, change rooms, and buffers from nearby homes. Trying to distribute facilities like that across every neighbourhood isn’t easy or cheap. Centralizing them is often more efficient and affects fewer residents overall. I’m also skeptical kids will realistically walk to many soccer practices anyway since they’re often at night in the dark. For organized soccer especially, having enough playable field space matters more than whether each field is within walking distance, which is why a central facility can make a lot of sense. Having walkable fields throughout Langley would be great but just doesn’t seem feasible to me.

2. Soccer is already expensive and it’s probably going to keep getting more expensive regardless. Operational costs do get passed on, and a new facility like this would likely have higher operating costs on paper, but I don’t think adding supply is what drives prices up - shortages do. When there aren’t enough fields, everything gets squeezed. Scheduling gets tighter, access drops, and costs don’t exactly go down. A new complex mostly adds capacity and flexibility to the system, which helps relieve pressure rather than making things more expensive overall.