Three-way pitch for sports complex

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

A three-way public/private partnership is making a pitch to enclose Beaconsfield High School’s soccer field in a bubble.

The Lester B. Pearson School Board, Lakeshore Soccer Club and the City of Beaconsfield are kicking off an effort to build an indoor soccer complex.

The school board is offering the existing sports pitch, which lies between BHS and the Place Cartier adult learning centre, for the initiative. “Obviously we need a benefit to the board, but in the bigger picture it’s a benefit to the whole West Island community,” said Pearson chairman Marcus Tabachnick. “It’s a terrific project.”

The plan also calls for revamped locker room facilities inside the high school and two outdoor synthetic-turf practice fields, which would be smaller than the main 11-aside pitch, he said.

The “Lakeshore Sportsplex” would fill the winter gap for local schools, which rely on outdoor fields in the spring and fall, Tabachnick added.

Meanwhile, the Lakeshore Soccer Club has offered to fund part of the project. The association, made up of 4,500 players, is one of the primary tenants of Lachine’s indoor Soccerplexe Catalogna. “We’ve been putting out a lot of money that justifies us having our own place,” said club president Dave Rodger. “So that’s why we decided it’s time to invest in our own future.”

Rodger said soccer is now a year-round sport and there is a burgeoning demand for indoor fields. “They’re definitely needed all over the West Island; they’re going to be popping up all over the place.”

Plans call for a removable roof or “bubble,” which will only be up during winter, he added.

Rodger wouldn’t say how much cash the association will commit. However, the main source of funding will have to come out of Quebec City.

That’s where Beaconsfield comes in. Quebec’s education, recreation and sports ministry fund doles out $24 million annually to municipalities for the construction and renovation of athletic facilities.

The sports and physical activity development fund was created after the province finished paying off the Olympic Stadium last year. “It doesn’t go anywhere unless we get a grant from the government,” Mayor Bob Benedetti said. “We want to get our request in quick before all the money’s gone.”

He said the city has to improve its recreation assets to lure young families, which have been moving to cheaper homes off-island, back to Beaconsfield. “If we’re to continue to maintain our population we have to attract them back when senior citizens start selling their houses,” he said, adding Beaconsfield taxpayers will not be stuck with the bill. “I’m optimistic that this project will come to fruition,” Benedetti said.