The next phase of the National Soccer Development Centre is proceeding, even if its landlord doesn’t call it that.
The UBC Properties Trust advertised a request for proposals for athletic field designers on November 12 under the heading “Vancouver Whitecaps and UBC Athletics Soccer Training Centre.”
The national moniker for the September 6, 2012-announced facility didn’t include a formal arrangement with the Canadian Soccer Association, although women’s national team coach John Herdman was eagerly looking forward to making UBC the prime pitch for his drive to convert Canada’s London 2012 bronze into Rio 2016 gold.
In September, Herdman and the women’s program made Burnaby’s $61 million, privately built Fortius Centre the training home through the 2015 Women’s World Cup and into 2016.
Delays in the second phase at UBC forced the team to look elsewhere. It is rather fortuitous that Fortius boasts on-site sport medicine services, offices and accommodation.
UBC Properties Trust is looking for bids by November 28 to turn Wolfson West into a new synthetic turf field by next August and Varsity Turf Field into a sand-based natural grass field by February 2015. A new synthetic turf field for the Whitecaps is planned for a parking lot north of the UBC baseball diamond, depending on the schedule for the soccer field house. Construction of the three fields is budgeted at $5 million combined. The Whitecaps received a $14.5 million grant from taxpayers for the $23.5 million project.
Field work
Even if not all the fields are done by June 2015, the UBC facility is eyed as a training site for teams entered in FIFA’s 2015 Women’s World Cup.
The 24-nation tournament, history’s biggest sporting event for women, will climax at BC Place Stadium with the July 5, 2015, final. Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly match there on November 24. After the match, 2001 Canadian women’s soccer hall of famer Carrie Serwetnyk hosted a reception for her burgeoning Why the Women’s World Cup Matters non-profit campaign. The latest fundraiser, unveiled November 24, was a $64 necklace designed by Vancouver 2010 medals designer Corrine Hunt. The jewelry is emblazoned with an eagle and an equal sign on one side and a ball on the other.
Serwetnyk, who is not affiliated with the 2015 organizing committee, wants to raise $250,000 for a First Nations girls soccer program, schools outreach and documentary about how soccer can change the lives of girls and women at home and abroad. Serwetnyk wants Canada 2015 to be a catalyst for change. Despite the game’s popularity in Canada, Serwetnyk said girls still face funding and field access hurdles and women are underrepresented in paid soccer positions.
“I hope it’s an opportunity for women, all kinds of other professions to see this as a spark to shoot for the sky,” she said. “The changes we can do in soccer could have a ripple effect in the world.”
Active initiative
Canadian Tire launched its Active at School campaign November 18 to lobby governments and school boards to mandate an hour of physical activity for kids and teens every day.
Canada’s dominant sporting goods retailer and fellow brands Atmosphere, Sport Chek and Mark’s are using the strategy to stave off competition from American invader Target. The coalition of five dozen groups under the Active at School umbrella includes the Canadian Public Health Association and the Canadian Medical Association, Canada’s NHL teams (except the Canucks), TSN, CBC and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
The latter deserved a medal for bad timing when it announced its latest sponsor on the same day.
The Sochi 2014-bound Canadian Olympic team welcomed to the fold snack giant Mondelez Canada, whose brands include Cadbury, Dentyne, Oreo and Ritz. Mondelez will launch its Pride and Joy campaign in January, which includes an app and advertising on CBC’s Sochi 2014 coverage in February.
Mondelez’s biscuits, cookies and candy products are of the “betcha can’t eat just one” variety. They’re packed with the sugar and sodium that health departments want Canadians to consume less often. •
