Proposed velodrome needs $91M commitment from city

The Argyll Velodrome Association wants city council to commit $91 million for a new velodrome in northwest Edmonton.

The $111-million facility is proposed as part of the Peter Hemingway Fitness and Leisure Centre in Coronation Park.

The association wants a promisefrom the city so it can raise the remaining $20 million. Councillors will discuss the request as part of budget deliberations this fall.

Coun. Bryan Anderson supports the project, but he's not sure where the money will come from.

You can't give them commitment unless you identify a source of funding. It's like taking out a loan and not knowing how you're going to pay it back. We can't do that, he said.

We're going to have to create a source of funds that will allow this building to go from beginning to completion.

David Embury, one of the association directors, says the group needs assurancesthe $91 million is coming before launching a fundraising campaign.

We're looking for a commitment from our partner to the project so that we can go out into the community and socialize our part of it with all of those benefactors and folks that are participants in this project, he said.

If built, the cycling track would be the first indoor triathlon training facility in North America. Elite athletes would train there, but it would mainly be a public facility.