Thunder Bay city hall will monitor development of new indoor turf sports building, mayor says

The City of Thunder Bay is moving ahead with its proposed all-season turf sports facility, and will monitor efforts by a private group to build a similar structure, the mayor said.

A group of private investors is currently clearing a site along Golf Links Road in hopes of constructing an air-supported dome that would allow turf sports, such as soccer or football, to be played during the winter months; there's been a lack of space for indoor sports since the former Sports Dome collapsed in 2016.

The facility would be called the Goal Sports Centre II.

Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro said the private efforts aren't affecting the city's current plans, which would see a larger multi-use turf sports facility built at Chapples Park.

"We don't know a lot about [Goal Sports Centre II]," Thunder Bay Mayor Bill Mauro said, adding he first heard about the project about a week ago.

"From our perspective, with the city in terms of our work, we'll just continue to move forward," Mauro said. "Now that we're aware of this, obviously we'll pay attention to it, but at this point, I don't see it impacting our decision."

• Work underway at indoor turf facility site in Thunder Bay, Ont.

According to general manager Carmen Felice, the Goal Sports Centre II would include one indoor turf field about 190 feet by 150 feet in size (close to 60 metres by 45 metres), that could be divided into two spaces, useable by several different sports, including soccer and football, and other events like trade shows.

The goal is to have the centre open by about Christmas 2019.

The city's project, meanwhile, would also include a large turf field that can be partitioned into smaller playing areas, and there are also plans to include things like a walking track, and, potentially, indoor tennis courts.

Approvedin principle

While council has approved the $30 million project in principle, there are still a number of unanswered questions, whichare being looked at by a special committee, which Mauro said has met twice since the project's approval-in-principle in late July.

"We have a third [meeting] scheduled, tentatively, not too far off," Mauro said. "When I established it, I really touched about four points that I thought we needed to deal with, and that was a decision on how to accommodate tennis, the financing model, the operating model and perhaps one or two other things."

• New indoor soccer facility hopes to open doors this year

"We're making some progress, and perhaps in the near future we may have at least part of a decision on at least one of those key points; that's possible that it could be made within a week or two."

The committee doesn't have any power of its own, but rather will make recommendations about the facility to council, which has final say.

Michael Veneziale, president of Soccer Northwest Ontario, said his organization is among several in the city that have signed an agreement to play at the Goal Sports Centre II, if and when the project is completed.

Still need for city facility

However, while Veneziale is supportive of the project, he says the centre doesn't mean a city-owned facility isn't needed.

"I think that some people see this as a permanent solution, as a long-term goal, but it is not that," he said. "This type of facility will not service Thunder Bay, or the turf user groups."

"It will not meet the needs of everyone," he said. "We can't take our eyes off the prize of thepermanent facility. That's what we've been working for five years, and that's what we need to continue to build towards."

Thunder Bay's facility, if it goes ahead, wouldn't likely be open until fall 2021.