THUNDER BAY – With uncertainty about whether funding can be secured for the new nearly $30 million indoor turf complex, the city will consider starting to look at a short-term fix for a local soccer community that is growing increasingly desperate.
Thunder Bay city council on Monday night will receive an update from administration on the proposed Chapples Park indoor turf facility, as well as a recommendation to launch a preliminary expression of interest to address the immediate need for indoor turf.
Kelly Robertson, the city’s general manager of community services, said stakeholder interviews and public meetings have validated an immediate, interim demand for a short-term solution.
“That longer term solution is going to be let’s say three to five years out, optimistically,” Robertson said on Thursday.
“In the meantime the need is still here in the city of Thunder Bay. We’ve been liaising with our stakeholders to discuss their thoughts on what interim solutions might be and there are various solutions that could be on the table.”
The soccer community’s push for a new indoor turf facility has heightened after the collapse of the privately-operated Sports Dome in November 2016, leaving more demand for playing time than the currently available facilities can accommodate. The Lakehead University Hanger and the repurposed bubble on the Confederation College campus are the only two existing sites that have indoor turf surfaces.
Some leagues have been on hiatus, while others have resorted to condensed schedules or using school gymnasium floors.
Soccer Northwest Ontario president Rosie Bava-North said that a fix was “needed yesterday,” rather than in two winters.
“I don’t think we can go another season between high school gyms and the time slots that Lakehead University has so graciously afforded us and then the site at the Con College bubble,” Bava-North said.
“We’re at the point we’re desperate.”
The report identifies three potential solutions using air supported dome structures, though Robertson acknowledged they likely would not be available until the fall of 2019.
The first would be to cover the field at Fort William Stadium, which would come with an estimated cost of between $4 million and $6 million. The second option of putting a structure over the new turf at St. Ignatius High School would have the same price but public usage would likely be limited to outside of school hours.
The third option of having a structure covering a new artificial pitch at Chapples Park has the highest cost at between $6 million and $8 million, which would include installing the new playing surface.
“The options identified in the report aren’t all the potential options. It’s just to give council and the public an idea of some options that have been brought forward,” Robertson said.
The proposed permanent Chapples Park facility, which would have one full-size FIFA regulation pitch that could be divided into smaller fields, is currently forecasted to cost $28 million.
Robertson said there is no guarantee money would be available from the senior levels of government.
“It is uncertain, partially because of the outcome of the recent provincial election,” Robertson said, adding a Stage 1 application has been submitted to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation for site studies and more detailed planning.
“We were advised they accepted our application but a determination of the eligibility of our application is on hold and that’s partly related to the provincial election and the outcome of the provincial election.
Launching the request for expression of interest is expected to cost up to $40,000, which is recommended to come from the stabilization reserve fund.
