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That work was supposed to begin in June, as soon as the spring AYSO season is over. But now that the $2 million Latin project has stalled, Costello doubts the Park District will run the risk of starting another.”Quite frankly, I don’t know if we’ll get the fields built anymore,” he told me. “Everything’s on hold. We have to wait to let the dust settle.”
But the Latin School and AYSO have this in common: both saw their kids playing soccer on third-rate fields and decided to do something about it. Both worked out roughly the same arrangement with the Park District — private money to make new fields, public money to maintain them. Both — and this seems to get lost in coverage of the Latin deal — already had longstanding relationships with the Park District. Latin’s been pulling permits for decades so its students can do sports in Lincoln Park, and someone speaking for the school says that once the new soccer field’s built, if it ever is, Latin will end up reserving just about as much park space as it reserves now.
