PROVINCETOWN — Many town residents are familiar with the name Motta — either because they have used Motta Field, the town’s 4.5-acre, rather antiquated sporting green, or because they have recently been asked to vote on an $11.7-million renovation of that field at town meeting and town election.
The funding measure passed by an overwhelming margin at town meeting on April 1, where it needed a two-thirds majority to advance, and it was approved by 62 percent of voters on May 14, when it needed only a simple majority.
The debt will be paid off in 15 years, and the addition of new facilities including a 400-meter track, a skate park, pickleball courts, an outdoor exercise park, and a playground should be completed in 2026.
Some voters may know Brandon Motta, 40, the town’s recreation director who runs a variety of programs for children and youth during the school year and summer vacation — many of which take place on the field.
The field is not named for Brandon, however, but for his great-uncle Manuel V. Motta, who was the first soldier from Provincetown to die in the Korean War in October 1950.
The field was dedicated to his memory on Memorial Day 1953, according to David W. Dunlap’s Building Provincetown.
The field was home turf for Provincetown High School’s sports teams, the Fishermen, for eight decades until the high school closed in 2013. (Manuel V. Motta played baseball there, according to Dunlap’s book.) It is still used by Provincetown’s elementary and middle schoolers, town residents, visitors, and the occasional dog as a place to play, run, exercise, and socialize.
The field currently includes three concrete tennis courts built in the 1970s, two regulation-size softball fields with concrete dugouts built in 2002, two regulation-size soccer goals, and a scattering of metal bleachers and picnic tables.
From certain angles, the crumbling concrete dugouts and graffiti-clad tennis backboard make the field look more like a movie set than a sports facility. There’s a worn feeling that can be nostalgic, however — a reminder of a time when scoreboards were not electronic, and games could unfold over the course of hours without losing their audience to phone screens.
“It provides a safe place for kids to just be kids,” says Chelsea Roderick, athletic director for the Provincetown Schools, which use Motta Field as their primary outdoor space. Roderick says the field is vital for students to get exercise and build friendships beyond the classroom walls.
Students play various group sports starting in May, including flag football, soccer, tennis, and a highly anticipated annual field day in June.
Louis Miguel, 21, said he brings his Jack Russell terrier, Quito, and a soccer ball to Motta Field nearly every day in summer. Sometimes friends join him for a pickup game. “It’s wide open, the grass isn’t artificial, and my dog likes it a lot,” says Miguel while throwing his dog a frisbee.
James Brogioli, a part-time resident who has just finished a game of tennis with his friend Christine Antweiler, says he’s been using the courts for 30 years and has noticed more activity since the town installed movable pickleball nets. “Now it’s busy all summer,” Brogioli says.
For Antweiler, who is visiting from Germany, the free-to-use outdoor recreation space is a novel concept. “We just don’t have public spaces like this in Munich where we can play tennis,” Antweiler says. “I think it’s just great.”
