If you’re a Clan fan like me, you may recall that after a hard-fought first season as a full member of the NCAA, SFU’s men’s soccer team ended the season ranked number one in the West Region. Which means — according to NCAA regulations SFU was granted home field advantage.

However, many of the American schools complained that some of their players and personnel don’t have passports to travel to Canada for the play-offs. Unfortunately, the American schools won, stripping SFU of their much deserved home field advantage.

As a die-hard Clan fan, this was something extremely upsetting to me. So, I began to look for solutions. That’s when I came across this special place within driving distance from SFU — Peace Arch International Park.

For those of you who don’t know, Peace Arch International Park is a park situated at the US-Canada border, half in BC and half in Washington. And what makes this park special is that visitors from either side can walk into the park both in BC and Washington without passports, provided they don’t wander further.

After some rough measurements, I’ve identified an area at the park with potential, roughly as large as Terry Fox Field without the track. SFU and the NCAA could simply set a temporary pitch using large pieces of artificial turf, plait the grid, and install temporary bleachers both on the Washington side and on the BC side and problem solved.

This solution, though not as optimal as allowing the Clan to deservingly host the play-off matches on Terry Fox Field or in Swangard Stadium, will render the “we don’t have passports” argument completely useless since passports would not be required.

More importantly, many Clan fans could actually attend the play-off games as the park is within driving distance of SFU.

Even though I still strongly believe that SFU should not suffer the consequences of the NCAA being unprepared, I hope that the universities will stop complaining and start preparing their passports in case the Clan,  once again, win the right to host the play-offs.

I hope the decision makers in Indianapolis will finally treat SFU like the full-fledged member of the NCAA it is, and stop stripping our rights like we don’t belong. We are part of the NCAA and should be treated as such.

At least for now, I may have found us a solution.