THUNDER BAY – Soccer Northwest is pledging to raise $1 million to help offset the cost of a proposed indoor turf facility.
Michael Veneziale, president of the organization, on Thursday said the board has been kicking around a few fundraising ideas, but hasn’t finalized anything yet, preferring to wait until after Monday night’s city council meeting.
Council is expected to vote on whether to move ahead immediately with the $30-million project, which will cost the city $42 million when the debenture costs are factored in, or delay it several months while the city gets its COVID-19 deficit in order.
Veneziale said it was important for Soccer Northwest to show its support to the proposed project, not just with enthusiasm, but also financially, given the cost of the facility.
“From the very beginning we’ve always been saying that we need a multi-turf indoor facility that can help everybody. If we’re able to raise some funds to possibly pay down the debenture, that possibly go toward the loss of the initial first year, that possibly keep costs a little bit lower for everybody else, we want to do that for our community,” Veneziale said.
“We believe in this process. We believe in this facility, and we’ve been working from the beginning and we want to keep going with it.”
It’s too soon to say what those fundraising ideas might look like just yet. Veneziale said they don’t want to start approaching local businesses or potential donors until the project gets the official green light.
“We’ve done a lot of research into it,” he said.
It’s been about four years since the city last had an indoor turf facility. The Sports Dome, which was located on the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds, collapsed in November 2016. Veneziale said even if it gets the OK on Monday, it will take at least two more years before it can open.
Every little bit helps, he said.
“We need to get this thing started.”
A private group has started clearing land off of Golf Links Road to build a potential two-dome indoor turf complex, but on Thursday a projects spokesman said investors have yet to commit to move to the construction phase.
