Soccer clubs align in merger

Mark Arblaster hopes bigger means louder.

Arblaster’s Newport Mesa Soccer Club has merged with the Corona del Mar Soccer Club. The combined program, which will still be called the Newport Mesa Soccer Club, will have approximately 18 teams and nearly 300 players.

The merger, which was finalized at the end of January, will reduce the competition for players, but Arblaster said he plans to increase competition for another asset: fields.

“There’s such a shortage of fields,” Arblaster said. “There are some good fields, [but] we just don’t get them. Literally, we get the scraps.”

AYSO’s three regions in the Newport-Mesa area have field priority because they accept all players, while club teams hold tryouts. The Newport Mesa Soccer Club is not helped by the fact that AYSO plays its games during the day. Arblaster said many of the available lighted fields are used by adult leagues.

“There are no lighted fields on the west side of Newport Beach and only two in Costa Mesa,” Arblaster said. “We’ve been very quiet and patient up until now. We have to be more vociferous now.”

Arblaster said he plans to use the larger club’s voice to affect change with public officials, who he said have shown indifference to their concerns.

“They weren’t prepared for the growth of soccer,” Arblaster said. “Hopefully, cities will realize this is a growth area.”

He added that he hopes the consolidated program will keep club teams from neighboring areas from taking Newport-Mesa players.

“The clubs in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley are just thinking, ‘We lost that area,’ ” Arblaster said.