Soccer association says Calgary lagging behind when it comes to indoor facilities

Calgary Minor Soccer Association and others who play the sport say the city needs more indoor soccer facilities to meet the growing demand for places to play and practise.

The organization projected a five per cent growth this indoor season but that turned into 16 per cent. The CMSA says it now has 840 teams playing more than 4,500 matches this indoor season.

With the World Cup headed to Canada for some games in 2026 and more of a buzz around the men's and women's national teams, the CMSA says interest and demand in the sport are expected to keep growing.

"The reality is we have to push some games out to less-than-desirable facilities and less-than-desirable times," said Richard Ha, marketing and communications manager with the CMSA.

"Compared to other sports, we're lagging behind. If you look at hockey, they have 70-plus rinks in the city, but we only have three or four decent facilities to put kids in."

Ha says there are two main indoor turf facilities in the city: the Calgary West Soccer Centre and a seasonal multisport bubble at Shouldice Park, which opened last year.

Richard Ha with the CMSA says the association wants to see more of a commitment from the City of Calgary when it comes to building new soccer facilities to meet the demand. He says the current situation is straining the organization and the families of kids who play soccer. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)

Ha says boarded pitches at the Calgary Soccer Centre in the southeast of the city are outdated and create inconsistency when it comes to playing surfaces and game play. These pitches also create an extra expense and barrier for parents who have to buy different types of footwear to play on different surfaces, Ha notes.

The carpeted, hard playing surface and boards also make the game more dangerous for players, he says. Similar, boarded pitches were dismantled and replaced with artificial turf at the northwest centre.

Players who use the southeast centre say everything from the potholed parking lot, which creates lakes in some areas when it snows, to its air conditioning system in the summer months also need addressing.

"One of my concerns is the parking lot has been unpaved for as long as I can remember, and we've had issues in the summer with the temperature and air circulation. It's nice to show you care about the soccer community," said player Kendall Beaugrand.

"Also, there's not enough fields. We have people who drive all the way from far up north to play here, so having one in each quadrant would be beautiful," said Beaugrand.

The Calgary Soccer Centre in the city's southeast is made up of boarded soccer courts with hard floors and boarded walls that the CMSA says are now out of date and out of step with newer artificial turf fields. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)

Beaugrand says players in adult leagues are also increasingly worried about their game times being pushed further and further back to accommodate the growth in kids soccer.

"We love our soccer community, so please invest in it," she added.

"We want to see more of that commitment from the City of Calgary. It hasn't moved at the pace we as an organization or the parents expected and it puts a strain on us as an organization," said Ha with the CMSA.

In a statement emailed to CBC, the City of Calgary said it's aware of the growing demand for indoor and outdoor field space resulting from a significant growth in registration in minor and adult soccer leagues. With the World Cup coming to Canada in 2026, the city says it anticipates this growth to continue.

"Over the next several years, new indoor field facilities will be opened. Construction of a new athletic park in Rocky Ridge with two multisport artificial turf fields is scheduled to start in early 2024, with an opening in early 2025. A new dome over a newly installed artificial turf on Field 1 at the Soccer Centre [is] expected to open in early 2025."

Huge potholes and small lakes of water can make driving and parking at the Calgary Soccer Centre in the city's southeast difficult. Players who use the facility say it's an example of maintenance being neglected and soccer facilities not being a priority. (Dan McGarvey/CBC)

"A new field house in the southwest community of Belmont is currently in the design stage, with an anticipated opening in early 2027," the city says in the email.

"A new athletic complex in the community of Saddle Ridge is in the planning stage. At full completion, it will include four rectangular, multisport artificial turf fields, a dedicated high-quality cricket pitch and a field house. Pending securing the full funding for these amenities, this project is anticipated to be completed by 2028/2029."

The city says it has also committed $109 million toward a new multisport field house at the Foothills Athletic Park, which will include 1½ indoor artificial turf fields. It says advocacy work is ongoing to secure additional funding from other potential funding partners.

More information on these projects can be found at: recreation projects and revised capital investment strategy.