The St. Albert Soccer Association will need to restrict how many kids can register to play this summer, and in the summers to come, until more field space is available, the club's president says.
“It started pre-Covid,” St. Albert Soccer Association (SASA) president Kevin Jones said. “We started to run out of smaller fields for our under 12s, which is our biggest registration group.”
“We had to cap registration because we just didn't have enough field space, and over time, the inventory hasn't really grown in terms of soccer fields.”
SASA has about 5,500 registered athletes each year, ranging from three-year-olds to those in the under-19 program, as well as adult and senior players. Besides the five fields located in Riel Park near SASA's headquarters, the club also uses community green space through St. Albert.
However, Jones said the city's construction work on the Sturgeon Water Reservoir, as well as the decommissioning of the field near Lois Hole Elementary School, and the loss of space because of the construction of the new Paul Kane High School building has meant SASA has lost field space in recent years.
“City staff have been excellent at trying to support us, but the need for green space that we can play on has grown,” Jones said.
Following a presentation Jones gave city council about SASA's situation last month, Mayor Cathy Heron said the city's plans for a new recreation centre in the city's northwest could help alleviate some field space issues, although the current design of the facility only includes one soccer field and there is no approved construction timeline in place.
'Field of Dreams' project called into question
Another setback SASA finds itself working through is the City of Edmonton's decision in fall 2022 to build on- and off-ramps from Anthony Henday Drive onto 137 Avenue, which takes up some of the green space SASA planned to use near the overpass for a new facility with eight total fields.
SASA, the City of Edmonton, and the City of St. Albert had entered into a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the spring of 2017; however, the MOU was not renewed in spring 2020, City of Edmonton spokesperson Chastity Anderson said in an email.
The MOU, which was non-binding, conceptually involved the City of St. Albert servicing the land, which is owned by Edmonton, after which Edmonton would donate the land to SASA.
Although the ramp construction along 137 Avenue was initially recommended by Edmonton's administration to go unfunded in the city's 2023-26 capital budget, Anderson said council voted to put $7.6 million towards the design and the construction of the ramps.
“The project is currently in preliminary design and is funded through to construction,” Anderson said. “It is anticipated construction may begin in 2025.”
Jones said Edmonton's decision to move forward with the ramp construction doesn't necessarily quash SASA's plans, but unanswered questions remain.
“It's long-term — a five-year project at least — but if we can get the grass and get access to the grass and then build the building later, we can sure put a lot of soccer fields in there while we're waiting,” Jones said.
League1 Alberta kicks off
Of the eight fields conceptually included in SASA's project, seven would be used for youth athletes, and the last field would be used solely for the Club's semi-professional women's and men's teams, which will be participating in the newly formed League1 Alberta this summer.
League1 Alberta, which will be considered Division III Pro-Am, will be the fourth league of its kind in Canada. As Canada doesn't have any Division II leagues, the St. Albert Impact will be competing in the most professional league of soccer, below only the Canadian Premier League. Prior to dissolving, FC Edmonton was a Canadian Premier League team.
League1 Alberta's first official season will feature both a men's and women's league, each with seven teams. The teams involved played an exhibition series last summer before League1 Alberta officially formed.
On the men's side, four of the seven teams will be based in Calgary, two will be based in Edmonton, and the St. Albert Impact will take the last spot. On the women's side, the Impact will compete against three teams from Calgary, two from Edmonton, and one team representing the Canadian Soccer Association's National Development Centre.
“We're ambitious as a club,” Jones said of SASA's involvement in the new leagues. “It gives exposure for our players and it's continuing to build the game across the country. And if we're going to be competitive on the world stage, we need these spaces for our players to grow in the game.”
Jones said given the structure of the Canadian Cup, the national tournament put on by Canada Soccer, it's possible that professional teams such as the Vancouver Whitecaps or Toronto FC could come to St. Albert to play the Impact in Riel Park.
“What happens is the winners of the League1s in other provinces enter into [the Canadian Cup], and it's a knockout elimination tournament until eventually there's one winner for the cup,” he said.
Each year the winner of the Canadian Cup, as well as two other Canadian Premier League teams, are then entered into the following year's Concacaf Champions Cup.
Concacaf (the Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football), is of FIFA's six governing bodies of professional football.
“We're a good competitive club,” Jones said.
