$58.7M sports facility will ‘have to wait,’ mayor says
Sewer improvements take priority over addition to WFCU Centre, Dilkens says
At $58.7 million, the cost of an indoor sports facility big enough for a Fifa-sized soccer field is simply too rich for flood-threatened Windsor right now, Mayor Drew Dilkens said Thursday.
It was Dilkens who in early 2017 first promoted the idea of a big indoor sports facility addition to the WFCU Centre and championed hiring consultants to conduct a feasibility study. That $80,000 Windsor Indoor Sports Facility Feasibility Study is now finalized, reporting that the city would lose $525,000 per year operating it.
The study shows rising demand for indoor facilities for sports traditionally played outdoors on grass, particularly soccer. It charts a path for building it, recommending finding partners to help with construction costs as well as leasing commitments. And it lays out all the sports that could use it year round: soccer, rugby, football, ultimate Frisbee, cricket, lacrosse and archery, not to mention many other sports that could use it if a hardwood floor was slapped on top.
Since the consultants were hired, times have changed for Windsor in the form of catastrophic flooding later in 2017 that spurred a sewer master plan calling for billions of dollars in sewer improvements in the coming years, said Dilkens, who now believes the fieldhouse project belongs on the back burner.
“Would I like to see the project? Absolutely, no question,” he said. “I’d love to see that happen, I think it should happen out there (at the WFCU Centre). But I have to be a realist in the situation I have in front of me.”
He said he’s unwilling to add a huge amount to the tax burden to build the 100,000-square-foot addition.
“It will just have to wait,” he said, citing the major costs on the horizon for fixing and expanding the sewer system.
“Now that I see and understand the order of magnitude that we’re going to have to spend on the sewer system, even in the short term, there’s no way I could look a resident in the face and say I’m going to short change the sewer program to give you this particular facility,” the mayor said.
The WFCU Centre with its 6,500-seat arena, three recreational rinks and multiple meeting halls, was built 12 years ago at a cost of about $71 million. A 25-metre indoor pool costing $6.5 million was added in 2012.
Dilkens said he wasn’t surprised by the $58.7-million estimate for the fieldhouse addition because council asked the consultant to come back with a plan that “mirrors” the quality of construction that went into the original WFCU Centre project and the downtown Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre.
In addition to a turf field that could be divided into quadrants, the addition would feature an elevated walking track, spectator seating for 1,500, eight change rooms, fitness room, storage rooms and parking for 800. The plan also calls for converting an existing ice pad somewhere in Windsor into a non-ice surface.
The goal of the feasibility study was to study building an addition that could be converted for use by multiple sports and used 12 months a year, the mayor said. In addition to sports that would play on the turf, a gym floor could be temporarily installed on top of the turf for such sports as gymnastics, basketball and volleyball. The consultant, Hunden Strategic Partners, says there’s demand for such an indoor turf facility, particularly for soccer, which has the largest number of participants among the turf-using sports.
Soccer, the consultant says, “is challenged by the fact that there are a limited number of opportunities to utilize the existing indoor soccer fields at (privately owned) Central Park (Athletics) and Novelletto Rosati Sports and Recreation Complex (located in Mic Mac Park) as they currently operate near maximum capacity. The lack of an indoor Fifa-sized field limits the season and opportunity for soccer and other outdoor sports.”
Windsor Soccer Club president Paul Bortolo said bringing a Fifa-sized field to Windsor would be a real boost. There is very little availability at the two indoor facilities, he said.
“We could offer full-season activities, where right now there’s nothing in the area for younger kids, everything’s adult-based,” he said.
The nearest Fifa-sized field in Canada, where 11-on-11 soccer games could be played, is London. However, Tecumseh is moving forward on a $54-million multi-use sportsplex featuring a Fifa-sized field that can be split into four smaller fields. It’s waiting to hear on its application for a federal grant to help defray the cost.
“I think the need for a facility (in Windsor) has to be gauged against what is coming. If you dropped it in today, I think you’d be in a very good position to have it utilized,” said Caboto Soccer Club president Egidio Mosca, whose club, along with two sister soccer associations based in South Windsor and Mcauliffe Park, had 2,600 players last season, their most ever.
He said several local soccer clubs, including Caboto, have locked up most of the prime time at the local indoor facilities, leaving little time for other clubs.
But Tecumseh’s proposed sportsplex would add availability and there’s talk of other organizations adding indoor fields.
“Then you’d have quite a few.” What would be more helpful to local soccer, Mosca added, is outdoor turf fields. They cost a lot less, they extend the outdoor playing season and they avoid all the games and practices cancelled due to wet fields — an increasing problem in recent years.
“If somebody said to me, Egidio, you can have one indoor field or three outdoor turf fields at the same cost, I would take the three outdoor fields,” he said.
The WFCU proposal does include the option of adding an outdoor turf field for $1.5 million, plus $2.5 million for a bubble to cover the field in winter.
The feasibility study goes to council on Monday. Ray Mensour, the city’s executive director of recreation and culture, said it will be up to council whether the project will move forward. Council could vote to have administration explore whether there’s a company or association interesting in partnering with the city on the addition.
“Then at that point, we’d have a better idea how realistic that is and we would go from there.”