St. Albert city council has voted unanimously to push back its decision on the St. Albert Soccer Association's (SASA) request for a city grant for a new city-owned indoor facility within 90 days after SASA conducts an independent financial review.
During the June 17 regular council meeting, SASA requested a city grant of $1.5 million for the seven-a-side indoor facility as well as artificial turf for their outdoor field, with SASA responsible for paying the remainder of the debt servicing. During that meeting, SASA board member Steve Houle proposed two options: either a one-time payment or monthly payments over 30 years until the debt was extinguished. The total cost of the facility and the turf was estimated at $6.9 million with a 4.5 per cent financing cost.
Houle told council on June 17 that they hadn't looked at conventional financing, as SASA felt it would have been difficult to secure being a non-profit organization.
Coun. Natalie Joly's motion would see the issue return to council within 90 days after SASA provides the city with an independent financial review of an operating business case, as well as a capital plan, including costing based on current environmental and geotechnical studies and municipal building standards and policies, and confirmation of project sighting. They must also provide statements of support from adjacent and other Reil Recreation Park tenants. All must be at SASA's own expense.
Houle said in an interview that he was pleased with council's decision.
"We've enjoyed a high level of support from both administration and council on this project. I think everybody sees that it is a win-win for the community. It provides new recreational indoor space, not only for soccer, but other sports in the city. It'll free up time at Servus Place, which is in high demand for all kinds of different sports and activities," Houle said.
Coun. Sheena Hughes and Coun. Wes Brodhead said Joly's motion allowed council to deal with this in a similar way they dealt with a similar request from Active Communities Alberta (ACA) to build a twin-rink facility.
Houle said a new facility would help solve the problem of a lack of facilities for soccer.
"Right now SASA is capping registrations of youth soccer players and I think that's terrible. But it's for a lack of field time and facilities. So this will enable us to allow everybody to play that wants to play, which is obviously the mission," he said.
"This is an exciting sport that is growing in St. Albert. It's an accessible sport and I look forward to hearing more from this very important community partner about this project and about ways that the city can partner to make this a reality," Joly said.
St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said she was happy to support this, and although they're dealing with the request similarly to the ACA request, she noted differences in how long the two organizations have been around.
"We had asked for those financials from ACA because they were new and we didn't really understand what they were trying to achieve. It was a very different model," Heron said. She added that this furthers council's prior commitment to work with SASA on a new facility after they weren't included in the community amenities site in Chérot.
