Call it pie-in-the-sky if you want, but the sports city concept being proposed for St. Albert is a viable business model that will create a complex that will be a beacon for aspiring athletes from all across Canada, says the development's proponent Pat Cassidy.
Cassidy's St. Albert Sports City is a concept that's seeking council approval in conjunction with the Avenir residential development that's proposed for St. Albert's northwest corner. The sports city aspect has been much less visible than the Avenir concept, which is touted as a clean-technology development.
The nucleus of the sports city would be a massive sport development centre that would include a 2,500-seat baseball stadium, a five-sheet ice arena and Canada's largest indoor fieldhouse.
Also included would be an outdoor golf practice facility, proposed to be built over a former landfill that's otherwise undevelopable, Cassidy said.
There would also be a scattering of residential, commercial and industrial development. Much of the focus would be sport-related businesses but there are also plans to include a permanent farmers' market, a hotel, movie theatres and restaurants.
Cassidy has heard his project described as pie-in-the-sky (including a recent Gazette editorial) but he's undaunted.
"We know we're presenting something that's big and bold," Cassidy said. "We don't deny we have our work cut out for us."
Cassidy has been working for years to develop a sports complex in St. Albert. In 2006, he failed to convince the city to service the 80-acre Badger Lands and sell it to him at a nominal cost so he could build a $100 million multi-purpose sports facility and training centre through a public-private partnership.
His company has since built two buildings near Servus Credit Union Place. The company operates the Athletes Nation training facility in Campbell Business Park. It also owns the Edmonton Prospects baseball team and publishes Prospects magazine, which focuses on up and coming athletes.
People have trouble grasping the sport development business, he said, but it's one that's pumping tax revenue into city coffers and forcing him to expand, he said. This would continue once the sports city becomes operational, he said.
"We're going to keep at it until we get the job done," he said.
His training centre and sports academies currently handle between 250 and 300 athletes a year, including professional hockey and football players.
The concept for the sports city is to combine athletics with academics, with 700 to 1,000 athletes living there year-round plus another 2,000 or 3,000 attending various clinics, Cassidy said.
The facility would be geared to athletes ranging from 12 to 20 years of age who are gunning for scholarships in the United States and professional careers in their sports.
"They're the kind of kids you hear about that go to bed with their bats and gloves because they're baseball players," he said.
Some compare his development with the money-losing Servus Place but it's a totally different concept, he said.
"We're not interested in getting into the subsidized recreation business," he said. "We're pursuing a viable business model."
Industrial needs
Cassidy's plan comes at a time when the city is considering whether or not to set aside a large chunk of land — 700 to 900 acres —for industrial development. Many have their sights on his area, which lies southwest of the future intersection of Ray Gibbon Drive and Villeneuve Road.
His proposed development would be mostly geared toward offices but there would be a handful of industrial lots along the northern edge of his property, which borders Villeneuve Road. Cassidy thinks the city's logical course of action would be to use his industrial section as the beginning of further industrial development to the north.
He argued that his development, with its call for industrial and commercial land designations, is giving the city what it wants — more non-residential development — unlike most developers who try to seek approval for residential development.
"We're the only developer that's part of the solution rather than part of the problem," he said.
A public hearing into the Avenir and sports city concepts will continue at the next city council meeting on Monday.
The sports city would be good for the city if it happened, said Coun. Cathy Heron.
"It would attract attention for sure," she said.
There's a lot of skepticism in the community, she added, but that's not something that should concern council.
"He says he can do it," she said, "so we have to let him prove that to us."
