Oliver Goodridge (pictured) is ready to lace up his cleats for a May 3 game, now that the New Haven Men’s Soccer League has come to an agreement with the city over which fields it can use.
Goodridge, originally of Liberia, coaches the multinational United Nations team, one of 25 adult male teams in the league. He and other league officials gathered outside City Hall Wednesday to thank their supporters for making noise when the city threatened to boot the league from two fields on the Boulevard.
The agreement, detailed in this Independent story, came after two months of protests, a petition bearing 800 signatures, and an aldermanic hearing on the topic.
“This is a victory for the people,” declared activist John Jairo Lugo of Unidad Latina en Acción Wednesday. “The protests, and the phone calls and the signatures, I think that made the difference,” he said.
City officials mishandled the situation, Lugo charged.
“In the end they figured out they were creating division in the community. It was not worth it to continue this battle,” said Lugo.
In an interview Monday, Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts said the city’s change of heart came after the league agreed to spread out its players to a third field to avoid overcrowding, and to address illegal activity happening near the fields: Click here for more of his comments.
On his way into City Hall Wednesday, Smuts stopped by to shake the soccer players’ hands.
Alberto Bustos, the league president, said he hasn’t signed the permit yet but has agreed to the new set of rules.
He said he’s still mulling over the price for the permit, which he said has jumped from $7,000 last year, to between $15,000 and $20,000 for the coming year. That price includes money to pay an off-duty cop, which was not included in the other permitting fee.
Despite some grumblings about “punitive damages,” Bustos said he plans to work out a deal and begin the league on May 3, “no matter what.”