By Greg Sakaki
New turf, a soon-to-be-installed dome and pay parking are all part of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton’s plan to turn Lansdowne Park into a break even or money-making operation.
The region, which took over administration of the park in January, will foot the bill for the $830,000 turf.
The $1.2-million dome will be privately funded and managed by The Coliseum Group, which currently operates the Coliseum, the nearby indoor sports facility.
Capital ward Regional Coun. Clive Doucet says he thinks the next set of budget figures will show that Lansdowne Park is no longer in the red.
“I think the purpose of this year, and next year, is simply to stabilize the park and its present operation and I think we’ve done that,” he says.
Lansdowne Park general manager Rick Haycock says the sixteen-year-old turf would have been replaced even if there had never been talk of a Rough Riders resurrection.
“From a pure business perspective, (a Canadian Football League franchise) really was not part of our plans at all. We realize that the CFL is not likely to be a financial blessing,” says Haycock.
Other activities and events will benefit from the new surface, which is made from polypropylene blades of grass woven into a silica and rubber base.
The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Quebec Major Junior Football League’s Ottawa Junior Riders currently use the stadium. During the winter the facility will be used for ultimate Frisbee, track and field, indoor soccer, and several other sports.
“There’s a great demand in the region for indoor soccer,” says Doucet. “The thinking was that this carpet was far superior for that sort of community activity and for the Francophone Games.”
The turf will be used for the men’s soccer competition at the 2001 Games of La Francophonie.
Haycock says he hopes the stadium will also be able to host international soccer matches in the future.
Current international rules dictate that games must be played on a natural surface, but Haycock says Lansdowne’s state-of-the-art FieldTurf seems to be in position to gain approval from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), soccer’s governing body.
One way Lansdowne hopes to bring in more money is by staying open for business all year. Frank Clair Stadium is being renovated to accommodate a vinyl dome.
The canopy-like structure is scheduled to go up between Nov. 18 and Nov. 25 and will be removed each summer.
“People should be very excited about the introduction of the bubble,” says Haycock. “This is a resource that would otherwise have been sitting vacant for the entire winter, simply collecting snow.”
Chris Roth, a partner in The Coliseum Group, says virtually all the weekends this winter are already booked.
“We would be dead in the water if we hadn’t lined it up ahead of time,” he says. “We’re probably close to capacity.”
Roth says the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, the Ottawa-Nepean Touch Football League and the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate (Frisbee) League will be the three biggest users of the dome this winter.
Roth says he doesn’t expect these organizations to make up for the loss of the CFL franchise.
“It definitely is a loss to Lansdowne Park and the region,” he says. “I will not pretend that we’ll be able to make up for that, but we are certainly paying our share.”
In addition to the lease revenue from the winter months, Lansdowne Park will generate about $300,000 annually by implementing pay parking in the next few weeks.