1a.  Organization
Whitehorse Minor Soccer Association, Box 5538, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 4Z2.
Tel: 667-2445. Fax: 667-4237 (Sport Yukon). Email: deleted. Web: www.yukonsoccer.yk.ca/minor

1b.  Contact Person
Doug Hitch, Director, WMSA. Daytime: 668-8824. Fax: 668-8825.
[alternate: Grant MacDonald, Past President, WMSA. Daytime: 667-7885. ]

2.  Organization Type
Registered non-profit organization

3.  Organization’s Mandate
The Whitehorse Minor Soccer Association (WMSA) has been providing low-cost, easily accessible recreational soccer opportunities to the youth of Whitehorse since at least 1985. The programs have enjoyed rapid growth. In the early summer season of 1999, over 1200 youth played outdoor soccer and currently close to 500 youth are playing indoor soccer. The demand on facilities is intense.

4a.  Project’s Basic Goals
To examine the feasibility of constructing an indoor soccer centre at FH Collins High School. WMSA proposes a three-way partnership with soccer, the territory and the city. The facility would be used by the school during the day, and by the community evenings, weekends and school holidays. The terms of reference for the study will be determined by a working group made up of representatives from soccer, Sport & Recreation, Education and the city.

4b.  Need
The study itself is necessary to establish a solidly grounded frame of reference for future research and discussion into many aspects of the proposal to build a soccer centre at FH Collins. The study will throw light on concerns such as location at FH, infrastructure needs, construction costs and operating costs. The rest of this section is devoted to a discussion of the need for an indoor centre.

There is a critical shortage of gymnasium space in Whitehorse. All user groups would like better hours and better gyms. By far the largest user of gym space is WMSA with close to 500 youth playing two games a week on more than 50 teams. The growth of the indoor game has been dramatic, almost doubling in the last five years. In 1998 WMSA had to break from its traditional Tuesday-Thursday schedule to use gyms the four days, Monday-Thursday. In 1999 it was necessary to expand further to a six day schedule, Monday to Saturday. A two-field centre would not only give soccer atheletes a home and place to grow, but it would free up an enormous amount of gym space for other groups.

Often special events such as exams or band concerts take priority over gym space. It can be difficult to schedule around these. In 1999 the Board of Directors elected to abandon sheduling for December altogether because of scheduling and administration problems in the past. With an indoor centre, community users would have preference evening, weekends and school holidays.

Gymnasiums are less desirable than a dedicated facility for several physical reasons. The playing area varies widely among gyms. Some divisions in WMSA play one night in Holy Family, a tiny gym, and then in the spacious Yukon College gym. This is like playing hockey on a neighbourhood rink and then in Takhini arena. A dramatic change in gym size affects the game significantly. In addition, gyms are not designed for soccer. The walls are important for the indoor game, but every gym has numerous obstacles on the wall which interfere with play. These obstacles are also a safety hazard. At the recent Arctic Winter Games in Vanier large gym, the Nunavut junior girls' best player was injured by a collision with a metal door jamb in her second game and spent the tournament on crutches.

The flexihall in the proposed multiplex would do little to diminish need for a centre. This structure will be just another gymnasium with the same drawbacks as other gyms. With the growth of the sport, this gym would be full of youth soccer as soon as ready and so not be available to adult groups with any sport, including soccer. It can be argued that construction of an indoor centre would eliminate the need for a flexihall by freeing up huge prime time hours in prime gyms.

Soccer centres are a feature of many communities in Canada. In Alberta, every city has a centre in use, under construction or in planning. Soccer centres have become as much a part of the sport culture as arenas and pools. Both multiplexes under development in Alberta, in Red Deer and Strathcona, have a two-field soccer centre component. In Whitehorse, indoor soccer has been the largest youth winter team sport for several years. It will soon be regarded as part of the culture here as well. In many places, as in Whitehorse, indoor soccer is the number one winter team sport. It could very soon be part of the Canada Winter Games. The Canadian Soccer Association has requested this of the CWG society.

In the experience of Alberta and other regions, moving from gyms to a soccer centre results in an immediate jump in the number of people involved in the game. And then, the number using the centre doubles in 3-5 years. A centre built in Whitehorse in the next two years could potentially see more than a thousand youth involved in the sport throughout the winter by 2005.

The indoor game is unfortunately sometimes regarded as secondary or inferior to the outdoor version and so less worthy of consideration in recreation planning. This is an unfortunate misconception. Many prefer to play the indoor game because it is faster and there are more touches on the ball. Even with play restricted to gyms, the game has has rapid growth in Whitehorse. There is a professional indoor soccer team in Edmonton, the Drillers, which plays in the Colliseum against teams from Montreal and several US cities. The status of the indoor game is rising. Anyone who attended the AWG soccer venue will attest to the excitement and the high level of play.

FH Collins High School is in serious need of more indoor recreation space. Around one thousand students share one gym. Many fewer students use the larger Porter Creek gym, and Vanier has two gyms. At FH, some phys-ed activities are conducted in other parts of the school. A two-field centre would give the school two very large multi-purpose areas. These would be used not just for soccer, but for many field and indoor sports such as ball hockey, lacrosse, flag football, volleyball, frisbee, badminton and lawn bowling. You can do everything on the turf of an indoor field that you do in a gym except bounce a basketball.

The growing sport of rock climbing needs a higher wall than those available in gyms for practice and holding competitions.

Administration needs of soccer have grown dramatically with the sport. The 1600 Whitehorse athletes who registered in YSA affiliated soccer groups last year need more storage and office space than the small room occupied by the part-time administrator. YSA and WMSA are also hiring a part-time technical coordinator for this outdoor season. A soccer centre would provide centralized office and meeting space.

5.  Project Detail
The terms of reference for the study will be determined by a working group made up of representatives from soccer, Sport & Recreation branch, Education, and the City. At this stage it is known that the consultant(s) involved in the study will examine at least the following issues:

6)  Employment created
The project will involve a complex team of experts with their support persons. All employment will be local. Maurer Kobayashi suggests a team involving two architects with an architectural technologist, four engineers, civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical, all with support staff, and a financial management consultant/economist.

7)  Employment Equity
The contractor will make every effort to provide equal employment and training opportunities for all workers, including women, First Nations people, and persons with disabilities.

8.  Location
The Department of Education property on which FH Collins High School is located is off Lewes Boulevard in Whitehorse.

9.  Permits
If any permits are required they will be the responsibility of the contractor.

10.  Recent WMSA Special Projects
WMSA constructed the George White Soccer Field at Jeckell (now Vanier) School in 1989, and reconstructed the FH Collins Soccer Field in 1992. WMSA runs a soccer camp for youth every summer. In 1999 WMSA began the reconstruction of the Christ the King soccer field, which should be in service for the community in mid summer 2000.

11.  Other involved or co-sponsoring groups
The Whitehorse Indoor Soccer Centre Facilities Committee has been working for some time on centre development. The committee has representatives from WMSA, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer, the Yukon Soccer Association, the Yukon Selects, Masters Soccer, Coed Soccer and the Rock Climbing Association of the Yukon. WMSA is applying for the CDF grant on behalf of these other groups. The FH Collins School Council has passed a resolution in favour of building an indoor centre. The terms of reference for the feasibility study will be made by representatives from WMSA, Sport & Recreation Branch, the Department of Education, and the City of Whitehorse. Letters are attached from:

12.  Other community support
Letters are attached from:

13.  Benefit to WMSA, others, and the community
The study itself benefits WMSA, others and the community by giving us firmer grounds for further discussion of the indoor centre project. The eventual building will provide numerous benefits.

WMSA's indoor program, with 500 players, is the biggest user of gymnasium space in the city, and is rapidly growing. A new facility would make it easier to accommodate growth. It would also free up gym space for the other groups such

as basketball, volleyball, badminton, judo, or scouts that have experienced increasing difficulty getting gym space in recent years. Soccer groups use more gyms space than all other groups combined. There are probably another 200 regular soccer players in gyms beyond WMSA's 500.

The board and turf style of game has a team size of 15-18 while the gymnasium game has a limit of 9. An indoor centre would reduce the number of coaches needed by almost half. Or, the program could double to 1,000 players without needing many new coaches.

Administration is simplified with a centre. Currently any materials which need to get out to players and coaches are distributed from the soccer office to the division coordinators who drive around the city to various venues and homes to deliver the materials to the coaches. With a centre, every coach could pick up their materials from the soccer office at their next game. Also, a simple bulletin board would help soccer administration reach all participants.

The current administrative needs of soccer have grown out of the small office in the Sport Yukon building. Sport Yukon normally assists organizations with registrations but had to cease doing so in 1999 for WMSA because of the excessive numbers and demand on Sport Yukon staff.

WMSA has this season abandoned play in December because of the difficulty in scheduling. School events cause many gym hours to be cancelled. With a home for soccer, there would be no problem with playing in December. A soccer camp could be run during the December school break during the day. Schools are closed at this time.

In almost every gym, spectators and family trek across the gym floor before, after and during games to reach seating. Besides the obvious nuisance to play, there is the problem of snow and grit deposited by outdoor shoes. Players slip on water or sand and risk injury. Spectators also risk being beaned by errant balls. Minor injuries and broken glasses occur every season to fans. In a proper centre, spectators have seating similar to an arena and are protected by netting.

One complaint that the Arctic Winter Games teams had in the period before the games was the unavailability of gym space. There simply wasn't any for special scrimmages or extra practices. A centre would provide a great deal of indoor space to the community.

Besides WMSA there are several other organized soccer groups in town. The Yukon Soccer Association has around 135 youth involved in the Developmental Teams programs. These teams use gyms for regular training during the long period when grass is unavailable. YSA runs the Yukon Championships each year in March for the territory’s soccer-playing youth. The tournament involves all of the WMSA teams as well as many from the communities. The tournament grows every year and this year, for instance, there will be 16 U11 teams. The developmental team activities and the Yukon championships will benefit from having an indoor centre.

The Men's Soccer League has about 120 players and the Women's Soccer League has about 100 players. In recent years due to gym space restrictions neither group has been successful in creating an indoor league although some of the Men scrimmage in Vanier large, Sundays 8-11. The Masters (mixed oldtimers) last year registered 30 players. In October 1999 a new coed indoor league began with play at 9 on Wednesdays and 7 on Sundays. The league now has 6 teams and 60 players. It does not really have any room to grow.

The Yukon Selects premier development team (1999 Alaska State Champions) uses gyms to train. The team is a mix of adult players and top youth. It participated in an indoor tournament in Prince George in 1999 and will play in a Lethbridge tournament on March 31. Last November the Selects and a group of all star women played the Men's and Women's Canada Summer Games teams in a fund-raising event at Vanier that was sold out.

There are two different adult groups which play pick up games in small gyms, late nights and weekends. The Whitehorse Rapids, an over-40 men's team, has been using gyms to prepare for the Masters Tournament in Prince George on March 31.

All of these adult groups would benefit from having a proper board and turf system. It will improve recreation opportunities as well as improve training potential for competitive groups.

Soccer atheletes have complained for years about the Vanier floor and it will be replaced this summer. About half the gyms have coated concrete floors and all these lead to sore feet and impact injuries. There are now turf systems available which are safer and kinder to bodies than grass. In the Alberta facilities there are no reports of impact injuries.

The arena style facility with boards offers more consistent and enjoyable play. There is a regular surface for rebounding the ball and the rounded corners keep the play moving. In the gyms, youth currently need to dodge trampolines and mats, and to fetch balls from behind bleachers in the course of a game. The balls bounce in unexpected directions off climbing apparatus and door jambs. There are traffic jams in the corners. Soccer associations which have moved from the gyms to centres report tremendous user satisfaction and a big jump in numbers.

Youth soccer brings not only the most athletes into gyms, but also the most spectators, the most grit from winter shoes, and the most wear and tear. A soccer centre would reduce the mess and damage to school gyms.

Indoor soccer centres have large unused rear walls which are ideal for a rock climbing installation. Climbers require very little horizontal space but like a lot of vertical. Rock climbing could be carried on at the same time that the fields are in use. A bigger wall than those built recently in local schools would allow Whitehorse to host major competitions for this growing sport.

The alternate uses of soccer centres are many and imaginative. In Calgary a large senior citizens lawn bowling league fills the fields on weekdays. The centre has held auto shows and an eight-ball tournament. In Lethbridge a big early spring user is baseball and the past two New Year's Eves have seen a dance with 1,000 Mormons. In summer in Medicine Hat, the turf and boards are replaced by earth and horses. Edmonton and Lethbridge feature summer roller hockey leagues playing on concrete with the soccer boards. Several centres are located near outdoor fields and so summer soccer camps are run from these, with players using change rooms, showers, food service and meeting areas, and teachers using the administrative facilities. Whitehorse could also benefit from a large indoor space for the Remembrance Day ceremony, the fall fair, Frostbite, Spruce Bog and other special events.

A big winner of the FH Collins site would be the school. Phys-ed classes would have large indoor fields for their activities. A strong intramural sports program could be developed which would help reinforce the sense of community in the school.

The Alberta centres are all financially successful and most are run entirely on user contributions. The Lethbridge centre, which is the model facility for Whitehorse, has had an operating profit in its first and second years. Not only has it received no operating subsidy from the city, but half its net profit has gone back into the capital cost. The Whitehorse proposal has a big financial advantage over Lethbridge. If operating costs in Whitehorse are shared by the school, not only should taxpayers not need to subsidize operations, but the community should have very economical user fees.

14.  Budget
For further details, please refer to the attached estimate by Mauerer Kobayashi Architects.

The territory will have staff persons from both Sport & Recreation Branch and Education (see Keenan letter) participate in the working group which will establish the terms of reference for the feasibility study. Tthe City of Whitehorse is also willing to participate in this exercise (see Watson letter). All members of the Whitehorse Indoor Soccer Centre Facilities Committee will contribute volunteer hours wherever necessary.

17.  Ongoing Maintenance Costs
No costs of this kind are involved.

18.  Starting and Completion
The project will begin in May or June, 2000 and be completed in two to three months.

19.  Cash Flow
There will be invoices from the architects when the study is half done, and when completed. CDF will hold back 10% until the final report is submitted. WMSA will have no cash flow problems between payment for the work and reimbursement from CDF

20.  Project Manager
Doug Hitch, Director, WMSA. Daytime: 668-8824. Fax: 668-8825. a. 30 Blanchard Rd, Whitehorse, YT Y1A 4T7.

21  Manager of the Project’s Finances
Mederic Tremblay, Treasurer, Whitehorse Minor Soccer Association. w) 667-5278. Fax: 393-6217.

22.  Work to Date
Doug Hitch and others have conducted research into all aspects of indoor centres across Canada and have consulted with architects, board and turf suppliers and centre operating managers. Some of the results of this work can be viewed on the web site dedicated to the project: www.yukonsoccer.yk.ca/indoor_centre.

We are submitting this application for the purpose of obtaining financial assistance from the Government of the Yukon. The statements herein and in all further submissions in regard to this application are, to the best of our knowledge, true and correct. We submit that, to the best of our knowledge, all aspects of the proposed project will be in compliance with existing municipal, territorial and federal codes, guidelines and laws. We agree to allow representatives of the Government of the Yukon access to the site and premises of the project described in this application, to inspect the books and records, to make inquiries and credit checks and to obtain all pertinent information necessary to evaluate this application. We understand that all or part of this application may be made available to the public in accordance with the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.