A new study by Sports Calgary that looked into the city’s recreational facilities shows an increase in the number of people signing up to play sports.
In 2013, 360 thousand Calgarians signed up, an increase of 10% in the last 5 years.
Tim Bjornson, executive director of Sport Calgary, said Calgary is bucking a national trend.
“Sport has been declining across Canada,” Bjornson said. “But in Calgary we definitely have seen growth along the population lines that’s pretty standard for the last 10 years”.
The problem is that despite new facilities in various planning stages, the current buildings are in need of major repairs or upgrades.
One of the areas that are in need of work is dressing rooms for girl’s hockey.
“We have had a whole bunch of investment in ice surfaces, “ Bjornson said.“ But we have to make sure we look after the ones that exist now and we have a lot of aging arenas that need attention”
The projected cost of upgrades and repairs to city facilities could be in the millions of dollars.
The City of Calgary says that there is some money available but it will have to be a combined effort to pay the bill, an effort that would include all levels of government.
For Sports Calgary, timing is of the essence.
“It’s a team effort really in the long run; we all need to pay attention so we offer opportunities to Calgarians,” Bjornson said.
Sport Calgary says it will be coming out with more recommendations about recreational facilities in the city at the end of October.
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