Yellowknife’s fieldhouse surface, the subject of years of complaints, is on the way out. The question now is: what replaces it?
The fieldhouse, with two indoor arenas that act like carpeted hockey rinks, is a hotbed of soccer, rugby, ultimate, flag football and even cricket for half the year.
The other six months? It’s practically empty.
“There is a lot of downtime in that facility once soccer is done,” city community services director Grant White said last year.
City Hall sees resurfacing the fieldhouse as a chance to floor multiple birds with one stone. While addressing concerns that the current carpet isn’t great, a new surface could also change how the facility is used.
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A sign has now appeared at the fieldhouse inviting people to try samples of a green artificial turf or a dark grey “multi-use synthetic material,” then leave their feedback.
An accompanying explainer states that if the city chooses the turf, that would “continue existing programs at the fieldhouse.”
The multi-use flooring, the explainer adds, “is similar to a gymnasium floor” and would offer new programs like volleyball or futsal, as well as allowing trade shows and other events in the summer off-season when winter indoor programs head outside.
The explainer states that both floors have their uses but offer different outcomes.
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Playing soccer on a gym-like floor, for example, might not be what soccer players concerned about the current surface envisaged as a solution. But players of sports currently limited to Yellowknife’s school gyms might like the idea of the fieldhouse opening up to them.
“The city is hoping to increase use of the facility in non-peak hours with the upgraded surface,” the explainer notes.
At the moment, there is $300,000 available for the project, which was signed off by councillors in 2022. That’s enough to resurface one of the two arenas. The other would be resurfaced at a later date, as time and money allow.
Whichever option is ultimately picked, the city says it’ll come in interlocking sections, an upgrade on the current surface as the sections will be easily replaced when worn or damaged.
You can learn more at the fieldhouse or visit the city’s website, where there’s a poll and a place for online discussion. (No such discussion had taken place as of 10am on Thursday, but the webpage only appeared a day earlier and hadn’t been widely promoted.)
Residents have until December 10 to give their feedback. The new surface should be installed in one arena by the summer of 2024.
