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Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Issues Request for Expres­sions of Inter­est for New Parade Ground Ath­let­ic Field

Feb 12, 2018 12:00 pm

New nat­ur­al turf field for soc­cer, foot­ball and oth­er sports and recre­ation uses avail­able for the first time, from April 1‑November 31

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today issued a Request for Expres­sions of Inter­est (‘RFEI’) for sports and recre­ation uses at the Parade Ground Ath­let­ic Field on Gov­er­nors Island. A for­mer nine-hole golf course uti­lized by the US Coast Guard until the mid-nineties, the Parade Ground was recent­ly restored by the Trust into a 500’ by 250’ flat, nat­ur­al turf field, large enough to host a range of sport­ing events and prac­tices, includ­ing soc­cer, foot­ball and more. The fields will be avail­able to youth leagues, schools and adult leagues dur­ing day­light hours dur­ing the Trust’s pub­lic sea­son, which runs May 1 to Octo­ber 31, as well as dur­ing the months of April and November.

“Gov­er­nors Island is New York City’s back­yard, and we’re delight­ed to expand places for New York­ers to play sports and be active,” said Michael Samuelian, Pres­i­dent of The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“The new Parade Ground Ath­let­ic Field offers an incred­i­ble set­ting for sports prac­tices and match­es, and we invite youth, adult and school leagues to help us bring this new resource to life.”

The Parade Ground Ath­let­ic Field, a rough­ly 7.5 acre site locat­ed in the heart of Gov­er­nors Island’s His­toric Dis­trict, was recent­ly regrad­ed in 2017 to cre­ate a con­sis­tent lev­el turf grass field large enough to host soc­cer, foot­ball, rug­by, lacrosse and oth­er sports match­es and prac­tices. The Trust envi­sions a range of ath­let­ic and recre­ation­al uses of the site by mul­ti­ple orga­ni­za­tions who will share access over the course of the Island’s pub­lic sea­son. Non-prof­it youth and pub­lic school leagues are espe­cial­ly encour­aged to sub­mit proposals.

The field is avail­able from May 1 to Octo­ber 31, 2018 sub­ject to cer­tain black­out peri­ods nec­es­sary for turf main­te­nance and oth­er events. The Trust also invites orga­ni­za­tions to pro­pose use of the field dur­ing the shoul­der sea­son months of April and Novem­ber in 2018.

The fields will be deliv­ered to select­ed respon­dents to this RFEI in its ​“as is” con­di­tion. In order for the Trust to under­stand the oper­a­tional impacts of the pro­pos­al, respon­dents are encour­aged to out­line and describe in detail their needs for uti­liz­ing the site, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to addi­tion­al equip­ment required such as goal posts and nets, line paint and tem­po­rary seating.

To sub­mit a pro­pos­al for use of the field, orga­ni­za­tions must respond to the RFEI found on the Trust’s web­site. Each sub­mis­sion must include a field usage plan, descrip­tion of the organization’s mis­sion and impact, site needs and qual­i­fi­ca­tions. An infor­ma­tion ses­sion and site vis­it will be held on Feb­ru­ary 15, 2018 with a lim­it­ed num­ber of addi­tion­al ses­sions avail­able upon request. RFEI respons­es are due on March 6, 2018.

More infor­ma­tion about the Island and the Parade Ground Ath­let­ic Field RFEI can be found at gov​is​land​.org. Images of the Parade Ground Ath­let­ic Field can be found here.