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

U.S. assassination attempt charges 'confirm' Trudeau's claims about India had 'real substance,' former national security advisers say
The indictment of an Indian national for the attempted assassination of a Sikh separatist and dual U.S.-Canadian national 'validates' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations that the Indian government may have been involved in the killing of a Canadian citizen as having 'real substance,' according to two of Canada's former national security advisers.
Bonnie Crombie wins Ontario Liberal leadership after 3 rounds of voting
Ontario Liberals have selected Bonnie Crombie, a three-term big city mayor and former MP who boasts that she gets under the skin of Premier Doug Ford, as their next leader to go head to head with the premier in the next provincial election.
Trump calls Biden the 'destroyer' of democracy despite his own efforts to overturn 2020 election
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Saturday attempted to turn the tables on his likely rival in November, President Joe Biden, arguing that the man whose election victory Trump tried to overturn is "the destroyer of American democracy."
Search for runaway kangaroo in Ontario continues
The search continues for the kangaroo that is hopping around somewhere in Ontario after it escaped zoo handlers from a transport truck Thursday night.
What was a hospital like in medieval times? Researchers analyzed 400 skeletons to find out
In medieval times, hospitals took care of the 'poor and infirm,' but how were inhabitants selected and what were their lives like? Researchers analyzed 400 skeletons to find out.
James Webb Telescope confirms existence of massive dusty galaxy from early universe
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed the existence of a massive, dusty, star-forming galaxy which was first spotted years ago by a ground telescope, but was completely invisible to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Rocky planets may be able to form under more high-stress scenarios than previously known: study
A study of one of the most extreme, radiation-heavy environments in the universe has found that it might be possible for rocky planets comprised of water, carbon and other familiar molecules to form under far more intense circumstances than previously believed.
Teen girls are being victimized by deepfake nudes. One family is pushing for more protections
A mother and her 14-year-old daughter are advocating for better protections for victims after AI-generated nude images of the teen and other female classmates were circulated at a high school in New Jersey.
7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern Philippines and a tsunami warning is issued
A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck Saturday off the cost of the southern Philippines island of Mindanao and Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning.