Opinion: Making a case for the Calgary fieldhouse

Since 1967, the Calgary Multisport Fieldhouse Society has lobbied to build Calgary’s first fieldhouse — a project revived, reassessed and reimagined, and now with enough momentum to push past the finish line.

A vision facilitated by Calgary’s track and field community and sustained by a broader coalition of sports organizations, business leaders and citizen athletes, the Foothills Multisport Fieldhouse is a city sports hub that presents opportunities for economic vitality and social enrichment. It will feature a competition-ready 200-metre hydraulic track, a 130-metre 10-lane sprint track, and FIFA-sized indoor turf for field sports.

Completing this state-of-the-art facility is a feature gymnasium with retractable seating for 3,000 spectators, supporting basketball, wrestling, badminton, volleyball, pickleball and other court sports.

The project already has $109 million in committed municipal funding from the City of Calgary. Today, the final hurdle to building the fieldhouse is securing provincial funding, with the federal government already signalling strong support for sports infrastructure nationally through its playground-to-podium investment.

With a population approaching two million, we remain the only major urban centre in Canada without a fieldhouse — even Kamloops and Cochrane, both a fraction of Calgary’s size, got there first.

It will be a shared space dedicated to sport, health and skill development, serving all Calgarians — from residents to high-performance athletes — while demonstrating Calgary’s commitment to providing sustainable sports infrastructure and creating opportunities for investment that attract business to our city.

As a longtime entrepreneur, athlete and sports advocate, I’ve observed first-hand how inadequate facilities have burdened athletes in Calgary, who often travel with their families to compete in Edmonton, a city with far more sports infrastructure. This deficiency has eroded our sports legacy, since many high-calibre athletes go elsewhere to train year-round.

That legacy is worth protecting — it’s a reputation that comes from our ability to attract talent and build community. But we must invest in infrastructure that can maintain this legacy.

WinSport reports that 130 medal-winners since 1992 — 70 per cent of all Canadian winter medallists — have trained at the Olympic Oval and WinSport half-pipe. Both are high-traffic post-Games venues that recently received federal upgrade funding, a hopeful investment for Canada’s winter athletes.

Calgary is at a critical point in its history — will we seize the opportunity to become a world-class sports city?

We are already the most connected mid-size city in North America, with eight professional teams, including recent additions of the Surge, Cavalry FC and Wild FC. The fieldhouse will give an estimated 25 sports associations representing 200,000 athletes a new home, and national team members will have cross-training and counter-season training spaces.

Calgary is in an enviable position in the world for its opportunities and enterprising spirit. We should get ahead of our growth by embracing sport and wellness as a driving force for our economy.

We cannot foster a vibrant city sports culture when demand for sport has outpaced availability of adequate facilities. Economic diversification and population growth have accelerated this trend, and now we need facilities for more sports, especially during our inescapable half-year of winter.

Recent Sport Calgary research indicates that more than 90 per cent of sport organizations surveyed identify facility deficits as the No. 1 barrier to growth — an obstacle that no doubt affects the enthusiasm and morale of athletes.

But Calgarians continue to show up for sports, with 74 per cent of parents reporting they have a child or children in sport.

Together, we can make the fieldhouse a reality and prove Calgary’s commitment to a prosperous future. Contact your MLA, share and post on social media, and be the integral voice that launches one of our most important infrastructure projects across the finish line.

The time is now to secure Calgary’s sporting legacy.

Jason Zaran is chair of the Calgary Multisport Fieldhouse Society.