Advisory: Sport Calgary’s Position on CalgaryNEXT and a Multisport Fieldhouse
CALGARY, Alberta — In April, Sport Calgary advocated for a non-confrontational dialogue between the City of Calgary and the Calgary Sport and Entertainment Corporation, and we are pleased that this dialogue has taken place, and continues to take place. We have been actively engaged as a stakeholder in this dialogue by both parties, and meet regularly with the City and will continue to do so. The deep and longstanding need in Calgary for multisport fieldhouses has been well established. We wish to reiterate our fve “must haves” for any multisport fieldhouse that might be built. These five items are a test by which any plans must be measured, and should be applied to any scenario involving the multisport fieldhouse. The five concerns we feel must be addressed by any proposal are:
- Fieldhouse amenities and program requirements
- Public/amateur sport users’ ease of access and parking
- Primetime availability of fieldhouse and practice ice rink given professional sport team and entertainment event priorities
- Affordable rates and fees and long-term guarantees
- Governance model with private sector operator vs. potential City operated or not-for-profit operated alternatives
Sport Calgary remains committed to advocating on behalf of sport so that Calgary can get the fieldhouses it needs. We support the goals of the Calgary Multisport Fieldhouse Society, one of our member organizations.
Calgary was recently reaffirmed as one of the top five most livable cities in the world. We would remind Calgarians that nearly half of the criteria used to make that determination was either directly or tangentially related to sport and sport infrastructure.
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Murray Sigler, Sport Calgary’s Executive Director and CEO is available for media interviews. Please contact 403.387.7772.
