New city committee will focus on building fieldhouse in Foothills Athletic Park
A new committee to be officially created next month will hope to push a proposal for a new fieldhouse in Calgary across the finish line.
The Foothills Athletic Park redevelopment assessment committee met for the final time Monday to wrap up its work looking at the entire area.
A plan proposed in 2019 looked at redeveloping and revamping the entire area, including Father David Bauer Arena and McMahon Stadium. The new committee fill focus solely on prioritizing the fieldhouse work, which could be built where the current Foothills baseball stadium sits.
"We will be doing some amenity refinement, meeting with our sport groups and external stakeholders, figuring out exactly what that fieldhouse is going to look like in terms of how many courts it will have, how big the track will be," said Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian.
When it was pitched in 2019, the cost for a fieldhouse was estimated to be $285 million. That price tag has undoubtedly increased with inflationary pressures, officials told the committee, though a new cost hasn't been figured out yet.
The investment would be worthwhile, according to some sport groups.
"We couldn't be more excited about this. It's something we've been waiting for for a long time and something, really, that's dearly needed," said Paula McKenzie with Calgary Track and Field.
McKenzie said the association isn't able to meet the demand for people who want to take part in the sport year-round. They've simply run out of indoor track room given the facilities the city has currently.
Tourism Calgary has also said a new fieldhouse could bring in about $20 million annually to the city when various events are held.
"If we did have a dedicated fieldhouse, if we had a dedicated indoor track and field facility, we could easily attract these national and international events," McKenzie added.
City officials said there's about $109 million in funding set aside for a new fieldhouse, but they're hoping the provincial and federal governments will step up to the plate to provide money.
“This is a project that is for everyday Calgarians," said Mian.
"This is where your minor soccer families and parents, who right now are driving to Edmonton and have been doing that for far too long. And so getting a project started and built sooner than later is always a priority.”
The new committee will be established at the Feb. 14 council meeting.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Feds hope to table foreign interference legislation next week: LeBlanc
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to table legislation this week to help the federal government address foreign interference, but he wouldn't say whether the proposal will include a foreign agent registry.
Auston Matthews skates ahead of Game 7, status unclear with season on the line
Centre Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs hasn't been ruled out of tonight's Game 7 against the Boston Bruins.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.