The City of Kamloops has closed all of the soccer pitches at McArthur Island for the next couple of weeks to allow the grass to grow back.

Parks and Civic Facilities Manager, Jeff Putnam, says while rotating field closures in early-to-mid May are not uncommon, the City is dealing with a significant amount of winter damage this year.

“The turf needs a chance for its roots to get growing again. It seemed like winter came early and stayed late and then we didn’t have much of a spring. It went right to warm weather so there was a fair amount of damage,” Putnam told RadioNL.

“For some reason the worst hit fields were McArthur Island and it’s perhaps because of the wind and lack of insulation and snow that we didn’t see in the lower valley.”

Putnam anticipates the closure to last a couple of weeks, saying the fields should reopen in time for the Slurpee Cup over the May long weekend.

“We’ve got the best turf crews in Canada working on them and they’ll have it up and running in the next week or two, for sure. I’m not concerned about that,” Putnam said. “I don’t think any participants in Slurpee Cup will notice any difference because of the high standards that we’ve set for ourselves.”

The Slurpee Cup – the longest running youth soccer tournament in the BC Interior – takes place over the May long weekend each year. This year’s edition, the 43rd annual, is set to take place between May 20 and 22.

Putnam says the City is working with to reschedule other user groups – like the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association and the Kamloops men’s and women’s soccer leagues – currently impacted by these closures.

“My staff don’t get involved in the actual scheduling of the field, that is through the Community Services Department, but I do know that they work very closely with the league organizers and give them lots of notice, and do what they can to move them around,” Putnam said.

“I mean, there will be some impacts for sure but we’re hoping to minimize those.”

Like the April 30 home opener, the May 13 Rivers FC game, set for McArthur Island Field 2, has been moved to Hillside Stadium as a result of these closures. Putnam says the impacts highlight the need for at least one more artificial field in Kamloops.

“It’s nice to have Hillside stadium as a backup,” he said. “As part of that Build Kamloops strategic planning that council is doing, it really is good anecdotal information for getting an additional – at least one more additional, ideally two – artificial year round turf fields that don’t have to be closed for extended periods of time as traditional turf.”

“Hopefully in the future, we’ll be able to do something like that.”