Soccer complex at The Fly is dead; Carrollton Boosters withdraws support – NOLA.com

Proponents of a soccer complex on The Fly are scrapping the project, which was to be built with $4 million in donations from the likes of Saints owner Tom Benson and quarterback Drew Brees.

John Payne, who began his drive for improved soccer facilities in Audubon Park two years ago, said in a statement that the project had become “hugely divisive,” so much so that he has told others involved in the project that it is time to stop pursuing the development.

Payne’s announcement seemed to catch many off guard, including Ron Forman, president of the Audubon Nature Institute, which manages the Audubon Park property. He said Payne’s announcement came as a surprise to him Monday morning (March 28), and he had not even had a chance to discuss the project with the Carrollton Boosters, the youth sports nonprofit that had been pushing the project and would have managed it were it completed.

The Carrollton Boosters followed up on Payne’s statement by announcing it was withdrawing its support for the project.

“Based on the decision by John Payne, who designed and raised the funds for the proposed Sports Complex, it is with deep regret that I announce that Carrollton Boosters is withdrawing its proposal to bring additional recreational opportunities to Audubon Riverview Park, also known as The Fly,” said Rini Marcus, president of the Carrollton Boosters board of directors.

Few would have predicted such an abrupt demise for the soccer complex plans when they were approved last year by the Audubon Commission, the body that holds Audubon Park and other properties on behalf of the public. There were no public opponents at the meeting, perhaps because many had no idea that the complex was to be built on a pie-shaped piece of The Fly coveted by picnickers and family reunions.

Although the commission voted only on a conceptual plan — there were no architectural renderings presented at the time — the endorsement gave Forman and the Audubon Institute the green light to hammer out a contract with Carrollton Boosters. They hadn’t finalized an agreement, but the Nature Institute had full authority to execute one without going back for additional approval.

The complex appeared to be allowed under existing zoning rules, leaving only pro forma permitting hurdles between it and eventual construction.

As the plans became more concrete, though, a wave of public opposition rose, united under the banner of Save The Fly NOLA. The group held rallies against against what some saw as creeping privatization, abetted by a system that gave the city’s donor class priority over the general public.

Payne and other supporters said they were taken aback by the vehemence of the opposition, saying they sought only to improve the city’s existing soccer facilities, which lag far behind those in other big cities.

“After traveling to cities like Birmingham, Memphis and Lake Charles to watch my daughters play soccer, it was apparent to me that some of our athletic facilities in New Orleans needed to be upgraded,” Payne said in his statement.

Backers of the complex agreed to pause development while they held talks with some of the activists and, in recent days, they had agreed to an alternate plan that would have seen it relocated and kept more of the park open for recreation. 

Hardline opponents, though, said the new layout was still unacceptable.

Payne said it was clear that no plan would ever be able to satisfy everyone, so he had no choice but to walk away.

Payne declined in an email to say how much architectural fees and other costs had already been sunk into the project, costs that he and other donors had already absorbed. What remains of the $4 million in donations that had been given to support the project will be returned immediately, he said.

Most opponents of the project said they didn’t oppose a soccer complex in general, just one that would be built on The Fly, where space is at a premium and much of the real estate is already occupied by ball fields.

Payne said there are no plans to consider moving the complex to another site.

Some opponents at rallies and meetings called out the Carrollton Boosters and other backers personally, often in terms that implied their motives were race-based, class-based or both.

The soccer complex would have been partly fenced off and would have, in the original plans, occupied a space some said was mostly frequented by black families.

The complaints only grew louder when it was revealed that a provision had been inserted into a draft contract governing the complex that would benefit two board members of the Audubon Nature Institute. The clause, which officials later said would be removed before anything was signed, would have required a concession stand in the complex to be supplied in part by companies owned or directed by the board members.