St. Clair College starts construction on $21.5 million sports park

By Trisha Kundu

The empty field across from the College’s main campus will soon be occupied with state-of-the-art recreational facilities.

St. Clair College’s new sports park, with a construction budget of $21.5 million will be completed in 10 months and will be available for the college’s 12,000 students and the community of Windsor.

The groundbreaking of the “dream” park took place on Friday, Feb.1 when 10 golden shovels hit the ground.

“It increases the whole number of campus life initiatives from varsity sports to intramural sports to community events. It makes St. Clair College probably the leading college in terms of recreational services,” said college vice-president of campus development and student services, Ron Seguin.

The concept of the “dream” park is probably two to three years old, said Seguin.

The project is an initiative taken after KPI surveys revealed students wanted additional recreational and athletic services to be available to them, said Holly Nicholson, president of the college’s Student Representative Council.

The project is paid for under a fee protocol approved by St. Clair College students with a contribution of $13 million. The college’s Student Athletic Association will pay $1 million. The project also received donations from Domino’s Pizza, The Windsor Family Credit Union and the Zekelman School of Business.

St. Clair’s student representative council will monitor the funding and progress of the project.

“It wouldn’t be possible without the college’s help and our student athletic association so it’s our joint project and we are excited about it,” said Nicholson.

The project is designed by Windsor’s Architecttura Inc. and will include a soccer stadium with a seating capacity of more than 1,200 viewers, an outdoor sand volleyball building with restaurant, a ladies softball diamond, a press box and a jumbo video scoreboard, the Zekelman Indoor Tennis Court, a pro shop and dressing rooms.

The park will also have a beacon entrance and a pond. The name beacon is given to signify the entrance to the park. This will be constructed by a local contracting firm called Fortis Group.

“It’s kind of nice to have local,” said college vice-president of communications, John Fairley, in response to the involvement of local businesses and the community as a whole.

The facilities will be mainly available for students but will be open for community involvement during spring and summer, said Fairley.