Subway Soccer Centre to be taken over by City of Calgary
City of Calgary will take over as operator of Subway Soccer Centre in two months
In two months, the City of Calgary will take over as operator of the Subway Soccer Centre. Photo: April Cruz.
By Krista Sylvester
The Subway Soccer Centre is about to get bigger and better as the City of Calgary takes over as operator in two months.
On May 1, the city will start calling the shots at the popular but fragile facility after the Calgary Soccer Federation’s (CSF) license expires.
The CSF has run the facility for 25 years but the city is taking over and will be constructing seven new fields – four in an annex replacing the former dome that collapsed and three outdoor fields with artificial turf.
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“The popularity of soccer has grown exponentially in this city and we want to get these fields built and get players back out there playing,” says Michele McDonald with the city recreation department.
“There is such a need for fields in this city.”
The city hopes to build the new fields and operate the Subway Soccer Centre for at least a year to get a feel for how it operates before potentially starting the process of finding a new operator in the future.
“What we need to do first is get the infrastructure built and then go from there,” says McDonald.
“There is a lot of capital work to be done.”
The construction is expected to take eight to 10 months and the city is hoping for minimal impact on players. The existing fields will remain open during construction and the 2012 indoor soccer ends before construction begins.
Calgary Minor Soccer Association (CMSA) executive director Daryl Leinweber says there is a huge need for more indoor fields in the city and at a more affordable rate so this is a step in the right direction.
“We’re quite limited in the number of tournaments we can host and my hope is we can get more fields in the city,” Leinweber said, adding Calgary currently has 9 indoor fields compared with 23 in Edmonton, where the rates are also cheaper.
Category: Soccer
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Why is the City taking over? Taking over…is that a purchase, or are they now assuming the costs, and why? Was it City owned in the first place and now they are just taking over the operation?
It’s similar to the City declaring 8th Street SW as one of the ugliest streets in Calgary, so they are going to spend millions on its renewal and probably hinder traffic even more than it is already on that artery. Get off it! The ugliest street is 8th AVENUE SW…bar none.
And where is the $750K the City stole from rate payers by saving that ANNUAL amount through the cessation of fluoride in Calgary’s water system. Annual savings! They say it’s supposed to go to an education program for oral fluoride treatments. What a joke! They will create a huge department for this with staff, laptops, ipads, cars and conferences, and the “education” part will be a few leaflets to dental offices…or they’ll go way over budget, and will be begging the province, the feds, and taxpayers for more money. Think Detroit…that’s Calgary…broke!