City of Thunder Bay breaks ground on indoor turf facility

It's been a long time coming, but Thunder Bay's new multi-use indoor turf sports facility is officially under construction.

An official groundbreaking ceremony was held for the facility on Thursday morning. When complete, it will be feature a full-sized artificial turf field — which can be divided into four smaller sections — which can be used for sports like soccer, football, baseball, cricket and lacrosse.

The building, which is being constructed next to the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium and Canada Games Complex, will also include seating for 500 spectators, as well as dressing rooms, concessions and meeting rooms.

"You really never know how it can be derailed," said Michael Veneziale, president of Soccer Northwest and a long-time advocate for the new facility. "We've had times in the past where we thought we were at the finish line and it didn't happen."

"Today, we're here," he said. "We're finally here. And with this, don't get me wrong, I am very, very happy to see all of this. But the day that I think I'm going to be the most elated is the first day this thing opens and we get to see the youth playing their sports in front of their families."

"That's going to be a great day."

That day will be in fall 2026, said Kelvin Jankowski, the city's manager of capital facility construction.

"The work on the site right now is the removal of the existing baseball diamond," he said. "They've removed the backstop and the fencing around the outside, and now they're rescuing the base and they're going to reuse the base material at other baseball and soccer fields in the city."

"They're they're working to get going on concrete piles sometime in July and then they will continue on with the work from there."

The facility is being built at a cost of just over $32.6 million, with construction being handled by Finn Way General Contractors.

Tony Colistro, executive director of the Thunder Bay Chill, said he was happy to see construction getting going.

"Puts a smile on my face, for sure," he said. "It's a long time coming, and I'm just happy that it's here and looking forward to the future."

Colistro said he expects the Chill to be making use of the new facility regularly when it opens.

"Our programs just continue to grow and we're always having to be very creative in the winter to try to keep as many of our kids playing and engaged," he said. "This is going to give us a lot of room to grow our programs and we're looking forward to it. We're already starting to look at how we're going to create the new programs and build on our existing ones."

A lack of space for turf sports during the winter has been a concern of sports organizations in the city for years. Soccer Northwest, in fact, first proposed the facility in 2014.

The lack of indoor space was exacerbated in 2016 when the Sports Dome, located at the CLE grounds, collapsed in a winter storm. It was never rebuilt.

Confederation College would later close its bubble facility, leaving limited options for indoor turf sports. Lakehead University's hangar has a turf field, but available times are limited, as students have priority.

"We're going to have to struggle for another year," Veneziale said Thursday. "But our groups are resilient."

"We've had to grind. We've had to work on our own, and now the city has our back and is providing a place for the first time in Thunder Bay history."

Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff said the facility will help making Thunder Bay a healthier community.

"A lot of these sports can really grow and blossom, because now you could do it from eight months to 98 years old," he said. "By having it year round, there's a consistency in being able to extend sports seasons, and do all those kinds of things, and without having the weather dependency. Let's face it, we get a lot of rain, we get a bit of snow."

"Making people healthier will also mean a healthier community, so we all win on this one."