It was combination of things, Burgess said. It is a good location, right off I-495, with easy access for a lot of towns. It is going to create a lot of opportunities for a lot of players who potentially want a little bit more development of the sport but also to possibly move on to the next level outside of what their own towns can offer.

As negotiations between Seacoast, Farrell and sports park owner Ted Dipple began earlier this year, Burgess saw another opportunity and Seacoast is currently under a purchase and sales agreement with Dipple to buy the New England Sports Park itself.

We came about it after many meeting between Tosh and Ted and both wanted to head in different directions, Burgess said. We could have worked out a deal to lease with Ted (but) he was happier with a clean break.

While he said he expects the sports park deal will be finalized in September, Burgess said that Seacoast took over Farrells lease at the beginning of the month.

It is two separate organizations, Burgess said. Obviously we are looking to purchase the sports park itself and that would be ours and controlled by us. Toshs indoor facility was a lease that he had set up with the owner of the building. Ideally we would have liked to have leased it closer to the winter. But, as you can imagine, the owner wanted to get somebody in straight-away. So we will use that more in the winter and the sports in the fall, summer and spring.

Burgess and company took over operations of both Farrells indoor and outdoor South Hunt Road locations earlier this week and Tosh Farrell Soccer itself has been rolled into the Seacoast United Admirals which are set to make their debut on the turf fields in August.

We have already had evaluations for the Admirals, Burgess said. I think we are probably going to have 15 teams based out of there originally, but that will definitely grow. We have already had the evaluation nights but we are still looking for extra players.

Snow tubing has become a popular winter activity at the sports park over the years and Burgess said it will not be going anywhere.

We are going to sublease that back to the current owner who is going to continue the tubing in the winter, Burgess said. There are many, many reasons behind that as we have never done it before. He has done it and it has been relatively successful. That is all part of the purchase and sale. We will have a partnership at certain periods of time where he can work and obviously we will use the fields to what we are good at doing.

Active supporters of Hope for the Hopeless and End 68 Hours of Hunger among other charities, Burgess indicated that the new Amesbury facilities will only serve to strengthen his companys community outreach.

We are hoping to work closer with the local communities, Burgess said. We have got friends involved in Amesbury soccer, Merrimac, Pentucket and places around that beltway. So it is kind of an obvious little growth area for us, especially when Tosh was leaving town. We didnt want it to turn into a truck stop. It is important to us to remain a sports venue and hopefully help provide more opportunities.

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