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.T that Central Park's facilities get heavily used. St. Anthony Village High School (SAVHS) is proud to boast very high participation numbers - as a matter of fact, 70% of students at SAVHS participate in a co -curricular activity. Further, these numbers only include "home" teams, as visitors and teams from other local communities such as Northeast Minneapolis, Columbia Heights, and New Brighton, and the High School's conference opponents from areas such as Golden Valley, Hopkins, Brooklyn Center, Richfield, and all parts of Minneapolis also utilize the facilities regularly for games. Therefore, it can be estimated that well over 2,000 participants in youth athletics use these facilities each year—an astounding number considering St. Anthony's geographical reach. St. Anthony's population level, being fully developed, is estimated to remain consistent and stable throughout the next 10-15 years. However, the youth population is expected to continue increasing as older families move out and families with children move into the City. This, coupled with rising athletic participation trends (NFHS.org) implies that the current overcrowding of fields will continue into the future. This project will specifically benefit youth soccer in St. Anthony. Soccer, as one of the fastest growing sports in the United States in terms of participation, has grown at least 30% in participation in St. Anthony alone over the past ten years, and the four fields in St. Anthony, excluding the Stadium Atlrletic Complex, conflict with football, baseball and / or softball use. Lighting the Stadium Athletic Complex will provide an additional two or three fields (done width -wise depending upon age) specific to youth soccer that will allow conflict -free usage and free play for youth all summer long— without the interference of another sport's practice. The project will also benefit youth softball in St. Anthony. Since St. Anthony Village High School's track and field program is cooperative with Spring Lake Park High School, and is hosted in Spring Lake Park, softball is one of only two locally sponsored spring athletics offerings for girls (the other being golf, which is not held adjacent to the school). Expanding the current facility will encourage current female athletes to take pride in their activity, stay engaged with the 'activity, and younger female athletes to become involved in the activity. The drainage portion of the project will reduce competition for field space at the most critical times—in August, September, and October when five athletic activities all vie for field space at the same time. Better drainage will, more importantly, prevent loss of access due to unplayable or unsafe conditions. The soccer portion of the project will quadruple the dedicated youth soccer fields available in St. Anthony, thereby providing significantly more access to fields to young soccer players. Further, the ability to mark a regulation -sized field will enable young athletes up to senior -year of high school the ability to participate in soccer locally— without having to compete with football players for a place to play. In turn, these 44