A NEW PLACE TO PLAY

How One Volunteer is Helping End a Family Cycle of Alzheimer’s
January 24, 2019
TAKE FIVE HANNAH KIDDER
January 24, 2019
How One Volunteer is Helping End a Family Cycle of Alzheimer’s
January 24, 2019
TAKE FIVE HANNAH KIDDER
January 24, 2019

Vacant land alongside Houma’s Southland Mall may be transformed into six soccer fields, if a deal currently under consideration involving a local soccer club becomes a reality.

Houma-Terrebonne Soccer Association board members discussed the matter early this week during a meeting at which a rendering of the fields drawn by the Duplantis Design Group were unveiled.

According to the soccer association’s president, Daniel Bruce, the association’s discussions center on plans between the company which owns the mall and the adjoining property, Canadian-based Morguard Corp., and the HTSA.


The group would lease the land for a sum of zero, according to information culled from the initial discussions. The soccer club would build its own fields on the site, which runs parallel to Bayou Gardens Boulevard.

A spokesman for the Duplantis group confirmed that Morguard had requested the rendering but could not supply further information. Dawn Becker, Morguard’s regional property manager, refused to confirm the soccer club’s claims.

“We are very excited about the future,” a statement sent by Becker in response to queries reads. “Unfortunately, we do not have anything we can announce at this time but look


forward to sharing our plans once they are finalized.”

Bruce said the mall’s owners reached out to the club in regard to the long-vacant land.

“They wanted to do community outreach,” Bruce said. “Parents can drop off their kids for soccer and go to the mall.”


The soccer association, Bruce said, serves 1,029 children from ages 3 to 18.

HTSA is registered as a 501c3 corporation, meaning contributions made for it can be deducted from federal taxes.

Indoor space within the mall itself once occupied by Sears will be part of the plan, Bruce said, although he wasn’t certain specifically how or for what use it would be developed.


The deal, if completed, would mean an expansion of fields available for use by the association. Currently, fields are available at the Bayou Country Sports Park, a Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government multi-sport project being developed in cooperation with Recreation District 2-3. The Lakes soccer field off of La. 311 is also utilized by children playing soccer.

During discussions concerning construction of the Bayou Country Sports Park last year, parents of soccer players complained that soccer was not seen as a priority by District 2-3, a contention its leadership at the time denied.

Parish government officials contacted in regard to the plans for mall-side soccer fields said they did not see any potential that the HTSA project, if it comes to fruition, would negatively affect on-going plans for completion of the Bayou Country Sports Park.


Vacant land along side Southland Mall may be turned into soccer fields in the future, according to designs that were introduced just week.

COURTESY