The Johnson County Parks and Recreation Department has just admitted that the 46,000 number of soccer players in Johnson County it has used to help justify spending $75 million on soccer fields is wrong.

In an ongoing effort to get data about the soccer fields, NeighborhoodNet challenged the data about 46,000 soccer youth between 4-18 in Johnson County who needed soccer fields. Remember: this huge number of youth was a basis for why all the soccer fields were needed in the first place.

When we disputed this number, the number suddenly disappeared from the Parks and Recreation website in their "Frequently Asked Questions." See the details in the article "46,000 Disappearing Soccer Kids: Johnson County Parks & Rec Eliminates Embarrassing Data".

Now, after continued requests for data, Michael Meadors, Director, Johnson County Parks and Recreation, has just answered a series of questions we provided--including the actual raw data on which the 46,000 soccer youth number was calculated. See all his responses on this webpage: "Johnson County Parks and Recreation Responds To NeighborhoodNet's Questions".

It turns out that the 46,000 number is wrong. It must be reduced by 40% to get the actual number (because individual soccer youth were double counted). But, we still question even the newly reduced number of soccer youth--because membership of several individual clubs were counted even though they belong to the bigger Heartland club, which is also counted.

An entire independent assessment of the soccer field project needs to be done, especially when Johnson County taxpayers are being asked to pay $120 million (over 20 years) for the costs of these soccer fields.

A False Answer To A Straightforward Question

The following is the question from NeighborhoodNet and the response as documented and provided by Mr. Meadors, Director of Parks and Recreation, (including coloring):

"2. Question: You mentioned previously '46,000 youth between the ages of 4 and 18' who 'enjoy the benefits of soccer in Johnson County.' Where did you get the 46,000 number figure and are you saying that this is the number of youth 4-18 who actually play soccer in Johnson County?

Yes, see the second attachment included in this email. [See table below] The number also does not include instructional soccer participants or those youth participating in camps and clinics. However, since many league participants play both in spring and fall leagues, this participant count is accurate but may be confusing. The actual number of individuals could, in fact, be reduced by an estimated 40% [Jill: 30%]. The District, therefore, is using the new description of “tens of thousands”. Do not confuse this number with the current 49,000 registered players in Kansas with the KSYSA (Kansas State Youth Soccer Association). This KSYSA number references those playing in sanctioned leagues and tournaments only. Many teams/players are not sanctioned at all or are sanctioned under other governing organizations such as USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association)."

The above answer "Yes..." is false. Deeper in the answer the truth comes out: you have to drop that 46,000 by an estimated 40% (18,400) to get the actual number of "individuals".

The truthful answer is "No, there are not 46,000 soccer kids as we have been saying to the public. There are about 27,600. Only after double counting lots of them did we get up to 46,000. We did not tell the public this until forced to do so."

Is The Newest Answer Also Wrong?

NeighborhoodNet suspects this new estimate may still be incorrect also and has asked for more clarification.

In this new estimate, JCPR includes participants from the Heartland Soccer Association. Then it counts participants of the soccer clubs that make up Heartland Association (Blue Valley Soccer Club, Olathe Soccer Club, and others) as additional soccer players. Are these double counts? If so, then the participant count drops from 46,600 to 33,260. Drop that by 40% to get the final count of actual players: 19,956. However, until JCPR further explains its numbers, there is no telling how many actual players there are.

Two Major Errors Already Discovered Show An Independent Audit Is Needed

This is another example demonstrating that JCPR has been using faulty data to decide that a $75 million soccer complex is the right answer to kid's soccer needs. Even when proven to be wrong by its own figures, JCPR cannot bring itself to admit the problem. So it answers "Yes" to a straightforward question whose truthful answer is "No".

JCPR was previously forced by NeighborhoodNet and citizens to drop the estimated revenue from the soccer fields from $36 million to $24 million. See the article "Parks & Rec Lowers Soccer Field Benefits: Still Publishes Other Incorrect Information"

These mistakes are about fundamental aspects of this project. What is the actual need? What are the actual benefits? What are the true costs? Johnson County taxpayers deserve an independent audit of this entire project, along with an unbiased look at how to best serve the soccer needs of our kids.

--Reported by Shirley & Bob Phillips for NeighborhoodNet (www.nbrhd.net)

JCPRD provided the following data to NeighborhoodNet. NeighborhoodNet has highlighted in blue and shown together those groups which are part of Heartland Soccer Association to illustrate the possible additional double counting even in this data. Heartland is highlighted in red. It is not clear if this represents double counting of Heartland participants by JCPRD. [To see the original formatting, visit this page: "Johnson County Parks and Recreation Provides Table of Soccer Participants"].

NOTE: The following numbers provided by JCPRD are for soccer participation, NOT for individual soccer players. JCPRD estimates that 40% should be dropped from these numbers to get the number of individual soccer players.

Johnson County Soccer Participation
Organization	2006
Heartland	16,500
Olathe Soccer Club	5,200
Overland Park Soccer Club	2,000
Blue Valley Soccer Club	4,800
Northeast United (300 U8 - 250 Pony)	550
Southwest United (U5-U8)	850
JCPRD	3,100
Shawnee Soccer Club	5,500
Leawood	3,900
Gardner Area	150
DeSoto
Spring Hill	310
KC Comets	200
Highschool Teams	3600
TOTAL	46,660
These numbers do not include Camps Clinics Adult Soccer Teams (Soccer Academies (Club Instructional Programs)