The Greater Fort Erie Soccer Club is proposing a new sports facility that would keep athletes in town.<\/p>\n
Right now, the club makes use of outdoor parks like Ferndale Park and the \u00a0Optimist Club of Fort Erie, but they\u2019re envisioning an indoor, domed \u00a0facility to take soccer in Fort Erie to the next level.<\/p>\n
Club \u00a0president John Sansano told Fort Erie council on May 25 about the \u00a0challenges that come with only having outdoor facilities, including \u00a0shorter tryout periods, weather delays and cancellations and limited \u00a0training opportunities in critical months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren\u2019t just \u00a0inconveniences,\u201d he said. \u201cThey directly impact our player development, \u00a0retention and our ability to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having received support \u00a0from council in the past while advocating for lights in the park at the \u00a0Optimist Club of Fort Erie, the soccer club thought to include the city \u00a0in their ideas for what they\u2019re calling the Fort Erie Sports and \u00a0Recreation Facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vision: Imagine a year-round indoor turf facility,\u201d Sansano said.<\/p>\n
This \u00a0facility, he said, would give Fort Erie youth and adults alike a place \u00a0to play and stay active across multiple sports. It\u2019d also bring in \u00a0tournaments and events, leading to economic activity in the community.<\/p>\n
Sansano \u00a0was joined at council by Jay McGrane of Far Post Consulting, who gave a \u00a0detailed look at a potential 7,000 square-metre facility on the north \u00a0part of the property behind Crystal Ridge Library.<\/p>\n
They envision the facility could be used by many clubs and organizations within the city.<\/p>\n
Daniel \u00a0Gignac, a director at the soccer club, said they\u2019ve reached out to the \u00a0Lions Club, the Fort Erie International Academy and the Greater Fort \u00a0Erie Minor Baseball Association among others, who have all been \u00a0supportive of the idea.<\/p>\n
The presentation wasn\u2019t a formal proposal to council.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are prepared to go right now without any money from the Town of Fort Erie or the taxpayers,\u201d Gignac explained.<\/p>\n
Despite \u00a0that, because of the previous support, the club is inviting the town to \u00a0participate in making the facility a reality with them.<\/p>\n
After a \u00a0few clarifying questions from council, Ward 4 Coun. Joan Christensen \u00a0recommended the club get a table at market to start getting community \u00a0feedback and to have something put on Let\u2019s Talk Fort Erie, the town\u2019s \u00a0website that facilitates public input on projects.<\/p>\n
Ward 5 Coun. Tom Lewis also encouraged the club to submit a formal proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Greater Fort Erie Soccer Club is proposing a new sports facility that would keep athletes in town.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,64314],"class_list":["post-208633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-spare-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}