THUNDER BAY – Battle for the Bay is underway at the Thunder Bay Tournament Centre.
Soccer Northwest is hosting the special exhibition from Thursday until Saturday featuring the Thunder Bay Chill and Superior Rush FC, while fundraising for new field equipment for the indoor turf facility.
Despite both being from the city, the two local soccer clubs haven’t had the opportunity to play games against each other in Thunder Bay for many years, due to the lack of field availability. Soccer Northwest decided to change that by putting on this fundraiser.
“This is something that we’ve been talking about trying to do for a while now,” said Michael Veneziale, president, Soccer Northwest.
“Lack of field availability has been one of the biggest sticking points for us. We were able to get as much time as possible here and at LU for to put this together and we also wanted to turn it into a fundraiser and raise money for new equipment at the new facility at the same time.”
The tournament features eight teams from both the chill and rush, playing games here in town at the Thunder Bay Tournament Centre and at the Lakehead University Hangar. Rather than cash admission, they've asked viewers to bring a non-perishable food item, which will then be donated to the LU food bank.
Going forward, Soccer Northwest is hoping to make this an annual event and include teams from outside the city as well.
“It’s a great opportunity for [the teams] to play in town and have a lot of family and friends come out and watch them,” said Veneziale.
“Typically, a lot of these families will travel four times a year to Winnipeg so it’s saving our local families money as well. And if we can get more field time, then we can start inviting in other teams from other communities, which is going to bring money into our community.”
The teams will be back in action Friday night from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and again on Saturday with games from 9 a.m. to noon, and 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
