{"id":933174,"date":"2026-10-14T21:36:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/933174\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:36:23","slug":"high-demand-for-more-cricket-pitches-investment-in-soccer-fields-underlined-in-city-of-calgary-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/933174\/","title":{"rendered":"High demand for more cricket pitches, investment in soccer fields underlined in City of Calgary report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

A limited supply of cricket pitches and soccer fields in need of investment are highlighted in a new city report.<\/p>\n

The report examines the playing time, maintenance condition and demand currently placed on basic, unstaffed recreation facilities maintained by the city. Of the sports it studied, city staff found cricket pitches are the clearest case where demand is far outpacing a limited supply.<\/p>\n

Booked cricket pitches around the city are used approximately 93 per cent of the time. By comparison, booked baseball diamonds see 40 per cent usage, while soccer fields are used 15 per cent of the time they are booked.<\/p>\n

Hozaifa Cheema, an organizer with the Calgary and District Cricket League, said he\u2019s surprised the utilization rate of local pitches isn’t even higher. He says the city has needed more pitches for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re so constrained that we don’t have time for practice, everything’s just a game,\u201d said Cheema.<\/p>\n

This season marked the first time in the league\u2019s nearly 120-year history that organizers had to reject new applications for teams due to popularity and a lack of space, Cheema added. <\/p>\n

One obstacle the city faces is how land-intensive cricket pitches are, the report says, with nearly two hectares needed to build the facilities.<\/p>\n

Cheema said Calgary\u2019s cricket community is trying to grow the sport\u2019s popularity among young players. But without more pitches, it\u2019s difficult to develop players of any age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the constraints that we have, we’re just not able to do that with our players, and not able to run any significant league-sponsored programs where we’d be able to develop players that can go on to play for Canada,\u201d said Cheema.<\/p>\n

He said Calgary has fewer than 10 cricket pitches for adults to use, most of which have barriers to play such as grass that’s too thick.<\/p>\n

Calgary council recently invested<\/a> in cricket, earmarking funding in this year\u2019s budget to build a pitch at the Northeast Athletic Complex. <\/p>\n

Council\u2019s infrastructure and executive committee is scheduled to discuss the report on Wednesday. The report arrives just a month before council begins four-year budget deliberations.<\/p>\n

More rec investment needed: Farkas<\/p>\n

Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the low utilization rate the report found for soccer fields reflects their poor condition.<\/p>\n

He said many fields are not adequately maintained to a high enough standard to host competitive play, which is a problem across other kinds of sports fields around Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven’t adequately maintained what we have,\u201d said Farkas.<\/p>\n

Farkas argued more sports facilities of all kinds are needed both in growing, existing neighbourhoods and in greenfield communities. He added the city would benefit from more multi-use facilities, and that there’s a “dearth of accessible recreation options” in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\"Soccer<\/p>\n

More soccer fields and more investment in Calgary’s existing facilities are both needed to keep up with the demand placed on them, Mayor Jeromy Farkas argued on Tuesday. (CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be a little bit smarter in terms of the types of recreation facilities that we build. I’d like to see more multi-use facilities,\u201d said Farkas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet’s make sure that we’re building more smartly so that if there aren’t soccer players who want to play in a given field, are there other ways that it can be utilized by other different sports groups?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sport Calgary president Candice Goudie said there’s growing demand around the city for all kinds of sports as the population has boomed.<\/p>\n

She pointed to examples like Calgary’s lack of a competition-sized fieldhouse or baseball diamond, that, if funded and built, could bring more tournaments and events to the city.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to council\u2019s budget talks, Goudie said more sports infrastructure is needed to ensure people aren\u2019t being pushed out of participating. Especially, because most of Calgary\u2019s public recreation facilities are more than 35 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of not investing is not inconvenience, it\u2019s inaccessibility. And if we\u2019re not looking at more ice, more water, more turf, more gymnasiums, we will have a city here where community sport is not accessible,\u201d said Goudie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-933174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}