Cambridge to get 12-field soccer complex on Fountain Street
City partners with Cambridge Youth Soccer
The City of Cambridge is kicking in with Cambridge Youth Soccer to create a new soccer complex in west Preston.
On Tuesday night, council unanimously approved a deal worth $1.2 million to buy 54 acres of land at Linden Drive and Fountain Street, near the new Fountain Street Bridge over the Grand River. Cambridge Youth Soccer is contributing $600,000 toward the purchase.
When completed the new soccer complex will include 12 soccer pitches ranging in size from mini to intermediate to senior. It will be Cambridge’s first major soccer park.
“This is going to be a game charger for our soccer program,” Derek Bridgman, general manager of Cambridge Youth Soccer, told the council meeting.
Cambridge Youth Soccer has 3,700 players on its outdoor fields and another 1,000 playing indoor soccer.
“As our organization grows in both the grassroots and high performance areas, the need for a municipally owned, soccer specific field has never been greater,” Bridgman said.
“A combination of synthetic and premium grass fields in one location will benefit the Cambridge soccer community for years to come.”
Bridgman said that in 2012 Cambridge soccer registration topped 4,500 participants, but has declined by about 20 per cent in recent years, in part because of the quality of the facilities and their maintenance.
Bridgman said he had been working with city officials for the last six years to broker the deal.
The new fields will make Cambridge more competitive with other municipalities in terms of soccer specific fields and will likely draw more tournaments to the city, he said.
Before the property can be developed, the land will be subject to an environmental assessment, which will not only look into the preservation of two woodlots, but also the archeological assets that might be found as Indigenous peoples have used the area for centuries.
Coun. Jan Liggett noted that there are already 52 known archeological sites in that area that will need to be considered.
Coun. Nicholas Ermeta questioned whether the Grand River Conservation Authority had looked at the site and whether it might have problems with structures like washrooms being built in the flood plain.
He was told authority staff have taken a preliminary look at the plans and further study would be needed.
The environmental assessment is expected to get underway in 2019 and construction would begin 2020.
Mayor Doug Craig noted that he met with Bridgman six years ago to discuss the project and it took time to broker the right price for the land.
“When you have an organization that comes in and puts money on the table to support their beliefs and what’s important, it really makes a statement,“Craig said, noting that the project falls in with his state of the city address aimed at keeping kids off the street and away from potential exposure to negative influences.