Most New Brunswick sports leagues have been in a holding pattern because of fears over spreading COVID-19, but an announcement from the provincial government last week changed that.
On Friday, Premier Blaine Higgs announced the province was moving to the “yellow” phase of its COVID-19 recovery plan.
In doing so they opened the door for “low-contact sports” to be played in New Brunswick.
In Saint John, many sports organizations are concerned even that may not be possible after the City of Saint John threw them a curveball.
At a meeting of Common Council this week it was determined that the city would not pay for maintenance of recreational sports fields this summer in an effort to cut costs.
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Alex Maloney has been practising as much as possible for a season of bantam-level baseball.
Maloney said he can’t wait to get back to competing.
“Bit of nerves, too,” Maloney said, speaking of his eventual first game.
“Because it’ll obviously be the first one. It’s a bit later so it’ll feel weird.”
Maloney and two teammates were out doing batting practice this week at Shamrock Park in Saint John.
“Baseball is one of the few things that has got me through this quarantine,” Maloney said. “Watching baseball, practicing. So I was just hoping we were going to have a season.”
Saint John Soccer Club runs recreational and competitive programs for about 900 people, which range in age from 4-years-old to adults.
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Cuilean Hendra, the vice president of the club said they have been working on a plan to commence summer programming, starting with older players in mid-June.
But he said field maintenance was not part of the equation.
“The timing (of the city’s decision) is very difficult for us because we have to do a lot of things in a very short period of time with no resources,” Hendra said.
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Hendra said the club uses about eight fields per year, and the costs to maintain them run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
He said the fields adhere to maintenance standards laid out by the sport’s governing body in the province, Soccer New Brunswick.
“Nobody’s working full-time for (Saint John Soccer Club),” Hendra said. “So it means that our board members are going to have to take time out of their lives, in a difficult time, to ensure that we get something up and running for the kids who deserve sport.”
Alec Montgomery, the president of the Molson CoEd Slo Pitch League in Saint John, is not only concerned about the condition of the fields, but also the ability to book them.
He said his 31-team league needs consistent availability of fields in Saint John, and the city’s plan unveiled this week lacked structure.
Montgomery said the plan could amount to a free-for-all, first-come, first-serve process for claiming a field for use.
Not having city maintenance crews means not having lights for the season, limiting the number of times fields can be available.
“We’ll lose at least 10 time slots,” Montgomery began. “Which means we can’t have 31 teams. We could do maybe 20 at the best.
“How do I tell 10 teams that, you know, ‘you aren’t playing ball this year?'”
Groups are also concerned that most of the work they would be asked to do would normally be done by unionized city workers, and they’re trying to balance respect for those workers with the needs of their members.
CUPE Local 18, the union representing Saint John’s outside workers, declined to comment when reached by Global News. The City of Saint John did not respond to a request for comment.
Maloney just wants to get back to playing.
“There could be stuff all over this field and as long as I’m playing, I’m happy,” he said.
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