Thunder Bay should stick with Chapples Park site for all-season turf sports facility, report says

The City of Thunder Bay is recommending that council "reaffirm" Chapples Park as the site of a proposed new indoor turf sports facility.

The recommendation is in a report to be presented to council on Monday night.

Chapples was earlier selected by the city as the preferred site for the facility; that version of the project was estimated to cost about $46 million, but stalled when a request for funding from the federal government was denied.

That prompted Soccer Northwest Ontario (SNO) to come up with its own proposal for a hangar-type facility to be built next to the Canada Games Complex and Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.

SNO has said in the past the facility would cost about $20 million, but that number is updated in Monday's report, which states the SNO facility would actually cost between $32 million and $52 million and revises the cost of the Chapples facility, stating it will cost between $46 million and $56 million.

The new report says it should stick to its original plan to build at Chapples Park. 

"It is concluded that the upfront capital requirements for the two SNO Option building standards reviewed ... are estimated to be lower than the same for the Chapples Option," the report states. "However, the cost per square metre of gross floor area, the lower energy costs and the lower lifecycle costs per square [metre] over the expected 40-year life of the facility suggest that the Chapples Option provides better value for money."

Kelly Robertson, the city's general manager of community services, said the review identified a number of concerns with the location near the complex. She said: 

The report also covers a few other discrepancies between the sites. For example, the SNO option would be smaller when compared to a facility built at Chapples and have less seating capacity.

Building at Chapples would allow for a large enough facility to include shower and washroom facilities in player changerooms. The smaller SNO option would require its shower and washroom facilities to be reduced and centralized.

The SNO design would also have reduced storage capacity, and smaller referee change rooms and administrative areas, the report states.

The entire report is available online, as part of Monday's council agenda.

SNO president Michael Veneziale told CBC News on Tuesday that he doesn't think the Chapples site has enough support for that version of the project to move forward.

"It's not the question of where exactly to play," he said. "The question is, is it going to happen?"