The Corvallis Sports Park is celebrating their tenth anniversary this year. Thousands of people of all ages and abilities have enjoyed the Park. Soccer enthusiasts regularly come from Salem, Eugene, Newport, Dallas, Philomath, Lebanon and Albany to enjoy Corvallis’ soccer treasure. Surely it has become the hub for soccer in the Willamette Valley. Here is a story of how CSP got there.

Blake Leamy and Jeff Merten had always had soccer on the brain. Both young men had helped pioneer soccer in the Valley as players and coaches for some of the earliest teams in Corvallis. They helped found the Corvallis United Soccer Club (CUSC) which became a wildly popular youth program. Blake coached the CV boys to a state championship and Jeff coached a strong CV girl’s team.

By the mid '90s soccer was exploding in Corvallis. The CHS boys soon won another state championship for Corvallis. The Willamette Valley Firebirds, a semi-professional soccer club moved to Corvallis in '96. CUSC youth teams were regularly winning state cup trophies.

As players and coaches Blake and Jeff had seen some of the early indoor soccer facilities around Oregon such as Portland Indoor the facility in Salem. Teams from Corvallis such as Bruno and the Couch Potatoes were already traveling to Salem to get their indoor soccer fix each week. Although these indoor fields were popular the facilities were of terrible quality. Blake and Jeff had a vision for a premier indoor soccer facility in Corvallis. But they needed funding.

In 1996 a local software company called Rogue Wave Software, founded by a Corvallis resident named Dan Whittaker successfully went public. Whittaker made out nicely in the deal and was becoming known as an entrepreneur around town. Dan’s two sons happened to be avid soccer players and were coached by Jeff and Blake. But Whittaker isn't known for making poor financial decisions. Jeff and Blake still had to convince him that the business plan was viable. They sold the idea to Whittaker and several other investors followed including Jeff's father, Greg Merten, Sam Angelos, Roy Hart and Bob Johnson.

The cool thing about the investment group is that they are all Corvallis residents. Each of these investors had children that played soccer in Corvallis and I believe they genuinely wanted to create something special for the local community. Generally, the investor group is unseen except for random appearances by Roy who will order the cheapest beer available and announce his presence with some obvious question like "what's going on here?!"

Blake and Jeff formed Indoor Sports Park LLC and selected CSP's location on Twin Oaks and 3rd Street because of its downtown placement and an existing zoning condition that allowed for indoor sports. What luck huh? But a project of this size was bound to have its challenges. The contractor built the foundation about 10% smaller than the design called for. That’s right, the Corvallis Sports Park field should be about ten yards longer than it is today. The grand opening was scheduled for the rainy winter season, the best time for indoor soccer, but delays held up the opening until the spring of '98. Even that date may have been pushing it.

The first several months were pretty wild. There was no second floor pub or balcony. Many of the dasher boards had particle board where the tempered glass is now. There were no benches to sit on downstairs or a penalty box. The upper parking lot area was undeveloped sasquatch habitat. In fact there was no landscaping to speak of, no trees, no grass, just that big old oak tree. The only product you could find in the store were Uhlsport shin guards and Lotto shoes. If you see anything in the store from Uhlsport, that is part of the original purchase order made ten years ago. The business was like a newborn foal struggling to stand and run as soon as possible.

To complicate things, the business was originally intended to be an inline hockey facility also. Ever notice the hockey player in the logo on the big sign outside? That business plan called for a painful installation of a skating surface called sport court in between each soccer season.

The indoor experience was novel for both soccer and hockey players. Even though the building was unfinished, the playing surface and dasher boards were brand new and top quality. People were excited and teams came to CSP like it was a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field. Honestly, there was nothing else like it in the entire state.

Inline hockey enthusiasts came from all over the state to play. They were a rabid crowd starved of leagues to play in. CSP even hosted a USA Hockey Inline Regional tournament. But inline hockey was a challenging business proposition and the Park struggled to generate enough interest in it to keep the doors open seven nights a week.

The business matured, the upstairs pub and balcony were completed, the upper parking lot was put in and the store received product from the likes of Adidas and Puma. Jeff moved on to pursue other endeavors leaving Blake as the General Manager. The soccer programs grew at all ages and levels. Hockey did not. Reducing hockey to just two nights a week wasn't enough. The difficult decision was made to cancel the hockey programs. You can still see an old CSP hockey jersey hanging up in the pub and the sport court stacked up in the north storage room. The decision was very unpopular with the hockey community. In hind sight however it appears to be the correct business decision.

For several years CSP bled significant amounts of money. The investment group remained committed to the business it seems like they might finally be seeing some reward. CSP has continued expand its programs and streamline operations. The addition of the Lil' Kickers program was big. Lil' Kickers has been tremendously popular and successful for the business. There has also been a fantastic amount of growth in the recreational divisions, especially in the coed leagues.

The Park has demonstrated a commitment to providing a top quality facility replacing the original turf with an improved softer aggregate and turf surface. Over the winter holiday break new lights were installed. CSP also expanded its operation and purchased KickCity, an indoor soccer facility in Springfield. We should all be able to look forward to playing soccer at CSP for many more decades.

Happy anniversary Corvallis Sports Park. Thank you for giving us a place to play soccer year round. Thank you for being a place where we can share a pitcher of Oregon micro-brew with friends. Thank you for being Corvallis’ own soccer Mecca.