Thunder Bay is set to receive a boost to sport and recreation with the approval of a new indoor turf facility.
City council approved the new facility at the May 27, council meeting.
Soccer Northwest Ontario has been a major voice calling for the new facility, but all sports user groups played a part in bringing the facility to fruition.
“User groups have been working together with soccer for probably the last 10 years trying to get a turf facility,” said the President of the Thunder Bay Minor Football Association, Rob Thibodeau. “There’s a lot of athletes that would benefit from this just not football, but all sports would benefit with the building of this facility, if we wait, it’s just gonna get more expensive.”
The Thunder Bay Minor Football Association (TBMFA) was one of the other voices at the table, and they are thrilled to see it approved.
TBMFA is an organization focused on developing and operating youth football in Thunder Bay and surrounding areas.
Their president says it’s important for youth to have recreation opportunities, “I think it gives the kids an avenue to do things and not just sit there and be destructive.”
“Organized sports are beneficial,” added Rob Thibodeau. “It teaches kids life lessons no matter what sport it is, the more kids that participate, I think it makes a healthier community.”
TBMFA has been running at capacity and they have a waitlist of over 200 kids. The new facility will allow them to do more.
“It will allow us to use to have more bookings,” said Thibodeau. “Right now we currently only can use the Lakehead University Hanger, which has been great to us but we can only usually get that for about 6-week sessions and that’s usually run at full capacity, with the new turf facility, we’d have the ability to run programs all year round .”
Currently, the organization has over 500 kids registered and more space means more camps and more opportunities.
