During the March 7th meeting of Conshohocken’s Borough Council, Borough Manager Stephanie Cecco provided details on behavior of adults associated with the Conshohocken Bears, the 62 year old youth football program that has utilized the stadium since its inception.
The issue isn’t new. Leading up to the 2021 season, the borough imposed a code of conduct on the organization that its participating parents and fans were to follow if they wanted to continue to use the facility. According to Cecco, there continued to be issues and they came to a head during the 2023 season when there was the unsanctioned use of fireworks.
Two nearby residents to the stadium offered public comment. Marlowe Doman stated that his wife and daughter had to flee the adjacent B-Field due to a fight and that there was constant illegal parking and other issues that were not prevalent when other organizations held events in the stadium. Mary McTiernan expressed how sad it was that it had come to this and pointed out that the issues could be caused by parents and fans from the visiting teams.
Cecco did praise the president of the Conshohocken Bears organization, Mark Benjamin, who did his best to improve the situation.
One thing to note. It was mentioned that the majority of the kids playing for the Conshohocken Bears’ teams are no longer residents of Conshohocken. While this wasn’t stated, we know that many come from Norristown, which has a defunct youth football program. The Municipality of Norristown recently agreed to purchase Roosevelt Field from the Norristown Area School District, which could serve as the new field. However, Norristown plans to make some improvements to the facility, which could result in a delay in its availability.
Cecco stressed that if the borough council decides to terminate the agreement, the borough is interested in working to bring the organization back in the future if the issues can be solved.
You can watch the discussion here (go the 1:49:10 mark to watch).
The borough council will likely vote on the issue during its March 20th meeting.