This Old Park Is Almost Ready

They have waited 15 years for their park to be put back together again. Two more months won’t matter.

Stone Field, near San Juan Capistrano’s historic mission, was supposed to have been restored by June, but work will continue until early August, disrupting the summer soccer season and a scheduled July tournament with a team from Mexico.

But for many who live near the field, the wait is worth it.

“We’ve been waiting for it for so long,” said Eleazar Gonzalez, vice president of the San Juan Youth Soccer League. “Two months will be like nothing. We’re really excited and we can’t wait to start playing.”

The park is undergoing an $840,000 renovation. Much of the cost is being underwritten by a grant from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center’s charitable arm. The city and state also are providing funds.

The 62-year-old field, once used for baseball games and occasional Friday night bonfires by students at the old Capistrano Union High School, has been neglected for 15 years. The rutted dirt field has been home to the local youth soccer league for five years. Spectators have made do with the crumbling stone bleachers.

The league’s 500 players, who range in age from 4 to 14, are not members of the American Youth Soccer Organization. The AYSO’s league fees are double what the unaffiliated San Juan league charges each child.

The nearly completed renovation includes an irrigation-and-drainage system, new turf, rebuilt stone bleachers, new restrooms and office space, an electronic scoreboard and a picnic area.

The project was originally scheduled to be built in two parts, with the first phase to be ready June 9.

But once the city received additional funding for a second phase, the grand reopening was pushed back to Aug. 11.

In March, there was a two-week delay so workers could preserve a 200-year-old aqueduct that had once served the mission

While the field is being refurbished, the league’s players are practicing at Acu Canyon Park and playing games at Cook Park Cordova, a few miles from Stone Field.

Gonzalez said the international tournament, scheduled July 13-14, will have to be postponed or canceled.