Evansville’s first public, professional-sized futsal court debuts at Stockwell Park
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Enthusiasts of futsal, a variation of soccer, have a new place to play in Evansville. The city’s first public, professional-sized futsal court opened at Stockwell Park on Aug. 11. The project, which cost around $340,000, was funded by a $200,000 donation from the Welborn Foundation, nearly $26,000 in donations from the Evansville Parks Foundation and American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Several entities including the city of Evansville, the Evansville Police Department and Liga LINK (Latino Soccer League) worked together to renovate abandoned tennis courts at Stockwell Park into a space for futsal. Danielle Crook, executive director of the Evansville Department of Parks and Recreation, said the project met one of the city’s goals of being more inclusive.
“[The futsal court] was built based on the community coming together and rallying around a need that members had and hoping to branch out. It was the Latino community that made this dream come to life, but this is for everyone,” she said.
Abraham Brown, president of Liga LINK, said the futsal court aligns with the soccer league’s mission to connect the Latino community with the broader sports community.
“It’s a lot easier to reach out to a community when they’re coming together for an event or a sport. And being there with them and showing support and knowing they have invested in something that brings the community together is one of the best things that agencies can do,” he said.
Liga LINK has been playing on the soccer fields at Stockwell Park for so long that the area is known as Parque Latino or Latino Park. Justin Becht, director of Indiana Futsal at the Indiana Soccer Association, said the futsal court gives the group another place to play while inviting others to participate.
“It provides a vibrant space to play for the elementary school next door. It provides a space for students or athletes who may have special needs, may require a wheelchair or a walker. Where the game on grass is not accessible, this would provide another avenue for that. And it revitalizes a space that has been just empty concrete for a long time,” he said.
About futsal
Becht told Inside INdiana Business futsal is like soccer but on a smaller, quicker scale. Five players on each team face off in a space that’s usually a bit larger than a basketball court.
“Soccer is played on a large field with eleven players on each team sprinting up and down the field. Futsal is less long sprints and more quick side-to-side action, which makes players develop not only their technical ability on the ball but how they move when they’re off the ball, as well as their ability to play in small spaces,” he said.
Brown said futsal is becoming popular worldwide after being played in South and Central America for many years.
“It’s getting a lot of traction in the United States now that there’s a national futsal team,” he said. “Futsal is part of FIFA. And there’s a FIFA Futsal World Cup that’s been played now for a number of years.”
Futsal fever is particularly growing in the Midwest, according to Becht.
“A lot of that is due to our abundance of basketball courts, our excitement for soccer and a lot of traditional soccer programs around the Midwest,” he said.
Indiana Soccer and Indiana Futsal created the Futsal for All program to introduce the sport to students in grades K-12 across the state.
“What we like to do is implement futsal in P.E. classes. We teach the teacher. We provide a U.S. futsal grassroots license to all P.E. teachers who participate in the course. They get a two-hour introduction to the game,” said Becht. “We’re looking to facilitate play and let kids get in at an entry-level where they can build some skill and build some confidence, but hopefully they keep playing the game in the future.”
Becht said he’s seen a lot of success with implementing futsal programs in schools because the sport is easy to organize.
“The teams are smaller. Schools have basketball courts where, oftentimes, especially in bigger cities, soccer fields aren’t as accessible or aren’t as easy to get to,” he said.
‘Connecting with the community’
The idea for a futsal court in Evansville began several years ago. Former police chief Billy Bolin and current police chief Philip Smith were in Los Angeles for a conference where they learned about the city renovating old tennis and basketball courts into futsal spaces.
“That was one of the highlights of what the LAPD showcased: how they were connecting with the community, being proactive and providing nice spaces for the community. And that also helped with integration,” said Brown.
Brown met with Bolin, Smith and former EPD Sgt. Jason Cullum to discuss the possibility of developing a futsal court in Evansville.
“Soccer is what brings the community together and has been bringing the community together for the last 10 years. So something like [a futsal court] would be a good opportunity for more Latinos to be able to play, especially because in those Stockwell fields, [where] we can only play during dry weekends,” Brown said.
The project was delayed because of the pandemic but gained new momentum following the support of the Welborn Foundation, according to Brown.
“They decided that this was something that aligned with their mission of providing healthy spaces and healthy initiatives to improve the health of the local community,” he said.
Once funding was secured, the futsal court was scheduled to open in May. However, details such as coating the court and adding personalized logos delayed progress.
“The weather was up and down. We kept having rain and storms, and they had to have so many dry days to finish. So they got the coating on and then had to wait several more weeks to get the logos in,” said Crook.
Future opportunities
One of the best features of the futsal court is accessibility, which Becht said is lacking in the American soccer landscape because many spaces are private.
“In the parks world, they talk about the need for third places, where people can go and meet other people and engage in society and in their community that isn’t going to a store or purchasing something. This [futsal court] creates a new third place in Evansville where the existing league and Latino community that’s using the park now will hopefully grow into other communities and more people from the area will come to this court to play,” he said.
Brown believes the design of the futsal court will create sports tourism opportunities while the location will promote integration.
“They made sure that they created this space, number one, with the correct measurements of a professional futsal court, to make sure they comply with all the rules and regulations from the futsal association and Indiana Soccer. And number two, they wanted to make sure the project was placed in an area that would bring people together. In other words, a park that already was visited by minorities, that was familiar to people that enjoyed this sport,” he said.
Crook said when passionate citizens have a need they express to the administration, then collaboration can begin and projects like the futsal court can come to fruition. Becht agreed.
“It takes champions reaching out to us and being able to navigate their school district and the community because we can’t do that in every community,” Becht said. “So we’re looking forward to the growth and the momentum of futsal in Evansville and the surrounding area. Hopefully, this raises the platform for the game in the area and not only for the youth but also for the adults, Liga LINK and the groups advocating for these spaces.”
As the parks department moves forward with other projects, Crook said the primary objective is to meet the needs of residents.
“Our main focus is what does the community want and how can we truly boots on the ground find that out?” she said. “It’s important to our team to make sure we are connecting with not just neighbors and citizens, but with nonprofits and local organizations that are here to better the community, that are at the grassroots level and have perspective and offer services that complement what parks have to offer.”