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Information night explores the potential for a new multi-use turf facility.

Does Yorkton need a new indoor turf facility? An information meeting was held at the Gallagher Centre on Jan.
Meeting
Dennis Nesseth talks about the proposed plan for a new multi-use turf recreational facility in Yorkton.

Does Yorkton need a new indoor turf facility? An information meeting was held at the Gallagher Centre on Jan. 16 to explore the possibility of a new turf facility in the city, and gather user groups to get together and work on what Yorkton could potentially support in the future.

The project started with Yorkton United FC, which had been hitting the limits of the FlexiHall in the Gallagher Centre, and want a turf facility to allow them to host tournaments as well as have a surface that is kinder on the legs and knees of their players than concrete. They quickly realized that having a facility strictly for soccer would be Dennis Nesseth with YUFC.

“We need to make sure that we have a facility that is purposeful, that meets the needs of everyone now and moving forward.”

The groups have looked at different options. Adding turf to the Flexihall was proposed five years ago, Nesseth said, but the cost of removal and storage for turf was prohibitively expensive.

“Honestly, if the city came to us and said ‘yep, that’s a soccer facility,’ it’s a 3/4 pitch, we would be more than happy and we would make that work. I don’t know if the city and the community could be without the Flexihall as it is now.”

The ideal setup for the club would be a $15 million, full-pitch facility, but while that’s the dream, the next step is to look at a feasibility study to see what the city can support, and whether their ideal facility would work of if the dream would have to be scaled back to something with a smaller budget. They are also willing to pair it with a second ice surface for the city, in cooperation with Yorkton Minor Hockey, if the feasibility study suggests that is a viable direction.

According to Yorkton Minor Football’s Darcy Zaharia, a common need among user groups in the city is space, and that’s one area where the proposed facility could fit in. He noted that if they had a full-pitched sized building, that’s more than enough room for minor football, and it would work easily for archery classes or lacrosse teams, for example.

“We don’t have specific needs, we just know that everybody needs space.”

Zaharia sees potential for a big economic impact for the city, because having an indoor facility opens them up to camps for sports, new tournaments and other events that the city can’t currently host. The spin-offs from that would have a major economic impact in Yorkton.

“More dollars in means more people in this community prosper.”

One of the struggles for the clubs involved is going to be convincing people who aren’t in the middle of sports in the city that such a facility is necessary, Nesseth admits, and there are people in the city who don’t see the need for a new multi-use recreation facility in town.

“The most important thing is to be informed about what the needs are. When I listen to the folks in this room, and these are folks who are involved in sports, in service clubs, in the community, I get the sense that they’re overwhelmingly in favour of a facility. I think the general public needs to be educated about what we are looking at, what it would cost, and what all of the benefits are.”

The plan would be to fund the project through corporate donations and government grants, and fundraising, said Nesseth. They recognize that the city has many things to pay for and their proposed facility will not be the top priority.

“The financial impact wouldn’t be huge on Yorkton. All of us here agree that it would have to be a purposeful facility but affordable as well.”

They hope to see something happening in 5-10 years, but Nesseth admits that a project this size take a long time and they are just starting.