Calgary Minor Soccer Association looks to the future following Annex and outdoor field additions

There’s a lot of new goals for the beautiful game in Calgary, now that renovations at the city’s soccer centre are ready.

Saturday was the grand opening of the Annex, which includes four indoor turf fields, to go along with three new outdoor fields to accommodate the thousands of participants who play in the city.

Calgary Minor Soccer Association executive director Daryl Leinweber said the facilities will give Calgary the ability to host provincial, national and international competitions.

“We haven’t had to host nationals for over probably eight years in Calgary and now with the artificial turf, they’re lit, and the grass field, we can now host nationals, which is a tremendous boost,” he said, adding there’s about 30,000 registered with the CMSA, but many more who actually play the game.

“There’s 109,000 soccer participants in Calgary, that’s over 10 per cent of the population,” he said.

Leinweber also said another major strategy is promoting the game, which they haven’t been able to do because of the lack of facilities.

“Soccer in the general growth rate is starting to flatten out a bit,” he said. “We’ve always seen all of the international competitions go to Edmonton, maybe now we can have some of those teams come down and train here.”

Leinweber said it’s a long time coming after the centre’s dome roof collapsed in 2008 and 2010.

“When the bubble went down, we lost four fields, so we ended up playing in Cochrane and Airdrie and we scrambled,” he said. “No longer do we have to probably use three or four facilities.”

Along with the seven indoor and outdoor fields, the Annex also features bleachers, change rooms and bike racks, with the total cost for both additions at $22.1 million.

For more details, click here.