Local soccer community sold on solid structure - Winnipeg Free Press

Sun Dec 4 2005

By Chris Cariou

WINNIPEG'S soccer community wants to stick a gigantic pin in the notion that an indoor bubble facility -- an air-filled dome, but one that dwarfs the collapsed Winnipeg Winter Club or the Golf Dome -- is a viable long-term option to satisfy the demand for a city that lags far behind its Prairie counterparts.
Bobby McMahon, a consultant to the Winnipeg Soccer Federation who designed the business plan for a $13-million, bricks-and-mortar structure that would include four indoor fields, concessions, dressing rooms and two outdoor fields in the city's south side, said there's no doubt a new bubble building would be cheaper.
But he said the new Superdome in Ottawa -- which Mayor Sam Katz visited and is considering as an alternative to the WSF idea because it would be about half the cost, at least for the indoor fields -- is an indoor golf range facility that's only sometimes used for soccer, similar to the Golf Dome on Wilkes Avenue.
He questions those who insist an air-filled dome could withstand Winnipeg's harsh climate and says other Prairie cities went the dome route long ago and gave up on them as inadequate to serve the needs of a huge sporting community.
"If you look at the history of Calgary and Edmonton, they both started with bubbles in the 1980s," he said. "Twenty years ago, Edmonton and Calgary passed by the bubble stage and realized that the bubble is OK as a starter facility but it doesn't give off the kind of revenue you need to invest in the sport." McMahon said the city was to come back with its own report within 60 days -- that would have been about Nov. 21 -- and he's confident that with the due diligence the WSF did, the city will end up agreeing the bricks-and-mortar facility is the most cost-effective solution to the problem.
"It keeps money in the sport, allows us to invest in programs and in facilities and at the end of the day, everybody's going to be better off if we go with that proposal rather than adapting a technology that essentially has been passed up by other cities 20 years ago," he said.
Hector Vergara, chief administrative officer of the Manitoba Soccer Association, said Katz isn't being fair if he's trying to compare a dome facility in Ottawa to the proposal the WSF first gave to the city in 2004.
"He can build two domed facilities for $12 million but we're building a fourplex and two outdoor fields with seating and lighting for international competition," Vergara said.
"If the mayor wants to build bubbles, let him build five bubbles in every single one of the districts. If he wants to spend $20 million instead of building one facility that centralizes everything... If a private organization builds the facility, soccer's not gaining anything.
"We're always going to keep coming back to the city saying 'We need more help' because the private organization's going to have the money and we're not going to get anything for the soccer community."
Tony Lourenco, a longtime soccer player and coach whose three children all play the sport, agreed it could be argued that two or three domed facilities might make more sense than one bricks-and-mortar structure. But he said the city has to do it right.
"We don't just want them to put up a complex just for the sake of putting up a complex," he said. "We want it to be viable, something that has some type of vision, something that can be expandable, something that will be multi-purpose down the line, something that's going to be done properly.
"The problem is, it's just been put on the back shelf and nothing seems to happen. I think the brick and mortar has more vision down the line where you have an outdoor complex with an indoor complex. We need it desperately."

chris.cariou@freepress.mb.ca


What we've got
Here's a look at Winnipeg's indoor soccer facilities and Hector Vergara's take on them.

Vergara is Manitoba Soccer Association's chief administrative officer.

* Soccer Spectrum: small, old, worn out, but busy from end of school to past midnight.
* Golf Dome: a golf facility, not a soccer structure, but busy still.
* Seven Oaks Complex: Great concept, open space, nice turf, spectator seating; best of the bunch.
* Gateway: Newer than Spectrum, built next to hockey rink, booked solid.
* Skylight (East St. Paul): New but using old Winnipeg Winter Club turf; stands too close to playing surface; complaints that dome-like roof leaks; too hot or too cold; play futsal there, a form of indoor soccer that does not require boards.
* Court Sports: Even smaller pitch and facility than Spectrum, playing surface can be dangerous, used by some leagues.
* Lipsett Hall: Gym facility used by some non-sanctioned leagues to play in because no pitches available.
Note: Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association has reduced its games to 50 minutes from 60 minutes to squeeze in more games; provincial teams must train in gymnasiums because there is nowhere else for them to go.

Dead and gone
* Winnipeg Winter Club: aging dome collapsed last winter.
* Cover-All, Headingley: relatively new facility closed; hope is it may be sold and reopened again.