The Yk Oldtimers Hockey League has had the sports market cornered in town when it comes to giving those aged 35 and up the chance to play in a setting which may not be as fast as they once were.

Joe Acorn is looking to do the same thing with soccer and he鈥檚 looking for some feedback on how that would potentially look.

Acorn has a survey up through the NWT Soccer Association on the feasibility of a masters soccer circuit for male players 35 years of age and up along with women 30 and up. It went live on Monday and the response has been decent so far with three dozen responses to date.

Acorn said it鈥檚 been all positive.

鈥淭here鈥檚 the opportunity to comment once they complete the survey and some of the responses have included things such as they鈥檇 love to see it or it鈥檚 a good way to participate or it鈥檚 just a great idea,鈥� he said. 鈥淎 lot of the older players have considered hanging up the cleats the older they get and I鈥檓 hoping to give them a chance to stay in the sport.鈥�

If it takes off 鈥� Acorn hopes it will begin this summer if everything goes well enough - the circuit would be played at St. Joe鈥檚 Field but not the full length of it and not 11-a-side, as is the case with traditional soccer. This would be a smaller version with the field cut in half and games being played width-wise. The proposed team size would be either six or seven per side with two games going at the same time.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a smaller field so you would need less players,鈥� said Acorn.

Even with the smaller confines, Acorn said it would still force players to be creative.

鈥淭here鈥檚 less room to move so it would tighten things up quite a bit,鈥� he said.

The idea is to run the circuit through the Yellowknife Bay Soccer Club, colloquially known as the Sundogs, and the club is looking to purchase equipment that would fit the dimensions of the field.

鈥淲e鈥檝e bought four 6-ft x 12-ft nets already because the regular soccer nets at the field would just be too big for what we鈥檇 want to do,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 also looking to get a dividing board to put in the middle of each field to stop the balls from going onto the other field.鈥�

There鈥檚 also the idea of backstops to put up at each end of the field to stop the ball from either going into the playground at St. Joe鈥檚 or onto Williams Ave., he added.

The plan is to make this part of a wider-ranging initiative through the Sundogs that would see the creation of a new soccer league in town.

Acorn said he would like to have youth be the focus with the masters being a division within that structure.

鈥淥ur focus has always been to develop players and get them ready to go down south and play in tournaments,鈥� he said. 鈥淥bviously, we aren鈥檛 going south anytime soon so we鈥檝e been looking at other ways to help improve the game in the city and we feel this is one way to do it.鈥�

And if you think this is going to create a conflict with the Yk Adult Soccer League, Acorn said it won鈥檛.

鈥淲e鈥檒l schedule all of our games around their schedule,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 an either-or scenario because we don鈥檛 want to compete with them. Our goal is to have at least one game per week (for the masters) and whatever their schedule looks like, we鈥檒l fit ours around that.鈥�