Men’s recreational soccer leagues across the GTA are facing a growing crisis. A tradition built on casual competition and growing communities, is now struggling to find enough participants because of affordability, intensified competition and inconvenient start times, causing some players to lose love for these recreational sports.
Joshua Scarafile, a men’s league coach of many years and a former U.S. college soccer player, has seen the transformation of recreational sports.
“When I first started playing men’s league in Mississauga, most of my guys came here to let the stress of the week out and have some fun kicking the ball around with the boys, but nowadays this whole environment seems like a mess of a Sunday night . ”
Scarafile referenced schedule start times specifically.
“I’ve played soccer my whole life and it’s my favorite thing in this world, but what I loved most about these games were the memories we made all together grabbing a drink after, whether it was an amazing win, or a 10-0 loss,” he said.
“Nowadays our latest start times are sometimes 11 p.m., and when most people have work early the next morning, we have trouble even fielding seven guys. Even if we somehow do, some of the players are leaving before the final whistle even sounds.”
For long-time players like Brayden Barroso, the appeal of the sport has shifted too.
“I think the problem is it just doesn’t seem that chill anymore,” Barroso said. “The prices are just going up and new regulations are costing us even more money. It’s just getting too extreme for us to keep doing this.”
Originally, he said he played in lower divisions for love of the sport and to exercise. “So why is the league format so messed up that we are still playing ex semi-pro players, it’s like they pick teams out of a hat to play each other, and it never used to be like that.”
Angela Malvaso, the administrator of Dixie Soccer Club, who has booked many fields for all leagues, said there are broader pressures across all community soccer organizations.
“Being the person who organizes all events, I can definitely say that field rentals, insurance and all staffing costs have gone up by quite a bit, and then the problem is that these costs go down onto the players’ responsibilities, which then pushes people away from men’s leagues.”
Malvaso pointed to staff shortages, including referees, as to why game cancellations happen frequently in Mississauga, Ont.
“I don’t know if it’s going around everywhere, but even here [Mississauga] it’s very difficult to have consistent referees. This drives games to be canceled and then frustration looms around the league as I’m stuck in a spot explaining to these guys that I can’t really do anything about it.”