Loudoun kicks around idea of Ashburn sports complex

Ashburn Soccer Club president Beckwith Bolle said the problem is not finding enough kids to play, but where to play them all.

“We are shoving so many kids on these fields. It's unbelievable,” she said. “Right now we are putting 1,500 kids [a week] on fields with room for only 600.”

As Loudoun grows, so does the strain placed upon the few athletic fields available to the county's expanding ranks of youth and adult sports leagues. But some help may be on the horizon -- and the type that does not require taxpayer dollars.

Now coursing through the county approval process is a plan to build a 40-acre sports complex along Belmont Ridge Road near Route 7 in Ashburn.

A company called Play to Win is behind this $40 million private venture. Plans include six lighted outdoor synthetic fields and three more inside a 225,000-square-foot building. Two ancillary buildings, indoor courts, a library, retail space, classrooms and a swimming facility also are in the mix. The county's planning commission will have a public hearing on the project on May 15.

Though not slated to reach the Board of Supervisors for several more weeks, the Play to Win center already has the backing of Supervisor Lori Waters (R-Broad Run), whose district encompasses the Play to Win site.

“There is always a need for additional fields,” she said. “We cannot keep up with all these kids and adult teams. ... In Ashburn, especially, there is not much land left to say, 'We are going to put a field there.' So, I'm all for this.”

Heading up the project is Leesburg's Chris Bourassa, a 45-year-old former business owner, who was “looking for something to do” after selling a profitable software company in the late 1990s.

“We can't find anything else like this center,” said this father of three, who also coaches baseball at Freedom High School.

Bourassa said the center will be a mecca for area youth sports, hosting soccer, lacrosse, football and field hockey teams. Several professional teams also are lining up to use the center, including the fast-pitch softball team Washington Glory and an indoor soccer team.

The county has raised some concerns about the project, including how noise and lights at the center will affect surrounding residents. But Bourassa said, “We are doing everything we can to minimize the impact” by planting buffering trees and promising to limit the use of the fields' lights and sound systems.

If plans are approved by the county, Bourassa said work could begin this summer and would take about a year to complete -- not soon enough for Bolle, whose Loudoun Soccer Club is already forced to make tough decisions because of Loudoun's limited field options.

“We have kids who want to play sports and we have to turn them away,” she said. “I think this facility is exactly what the county needs.”

Contact the reporter at jjacks@timespapers.com

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