Jordan Thompson\nFrom left to right: Oai Truong, president of Bonivital Soccer; Brian Mayes, city councillor for St. Vital; Colin Ottenbreit, general manager of Bonivital Soccer; Sheila Cornick, vice-president of Bonivital Soccer; and Nancy Allen, MLA for St. Vital, show a mock-up for the Bonivital Memorial Field House.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nThe announcement marks the latest stage of the facility’s development and evolution of the facility. Last year, the province invested $900,000 to convert the field from natural to synthetic grass, designed to improve the field’s drainage, as well as extend the length of the soccer season.<\/p>\n
Upgrades to the fieldhouse will include new washrooms, changing facilities and office space, as well as some exterior building work.<\/p>\n
Mayes said work on the fieldhouse will begin “as soon as possible” with city officials working in conjunction with organizers at Bonivital to have the building fully-renovated and completed by May 1, 2015. That’s the deadline for the facility to get the green light to be used as a practice facility for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, the most prestigious tournament in women’s soccer, which will be held in Canada from June 6 to July 5, 2015. Winnipeg is one of the six host cities.<\/p>\n
Crews will be able to work through the winter on the project, Mayes added.<\/p>\n
“There are two stages to this story,” Mayes said. “We’ve got to be ready for the World Cup and then it will become the new headquarters of Bonivital, which the Memorial Park site from the city, so it’s great for them,” Mayes said.<\/p>\n
“In this respect, the World Cup coming to Winnipeg is going to have two effects. It will help raise the profile of soccer even further and these facilities will have a long-lasting impact in the community at the grassroots level. (St. Vital MLA) Nancy Allan has been great to work with on this. She was the driving force behind last year’s funding by the province.”<\/p>\n
In keeping with the soccer fever in the air, the recent announcement came days before Canada’s women’s national team is due to play its archrivals the U.S. in the team’s first home game of 2014 at Investor’s Group Field on Thurs., May 8.<\/p>\n
The Canadian squad includes Winnipeg’s own local soccer legend Desiree Scott, who currently plays her club soccer in England for Notts County Ladies. The fixture will give local fans what is now a rare chance to see the defensive midfield anchor play in her hometown. <\/p>\n
The game will be broadcast on Sportsnet One at 7 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n
simon.fuller@canstarnews.com<\/p>\n
Facebook.com\/TheLanceWPG
Twitter: @lanceWPG<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":156973041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-258178021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lance"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"St. Vital Memorial Park fieldhouse slated for funding; facility set to host practice for 2015 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup","story_tag":"","byline":"Simon Fuller","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/lance\/2014\/05\/06\/building-a-top-class-local-soccer-facility","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Building a top class local soccer facility","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/lance\/2014\/05\/06\/building-a-top-class-local-soccer-facility","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/lance\/2014\/05\/06\/building-a-top-class-local-soccer-facility"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/jt-bonivital-may7_(col).jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/jt-bonivital-may7_(col).jpg"},"articleSection":"The Lance","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2014-05-06T20:20:00Z","datePublished":"2014-05-06T20:20:00Z","dateModified":"2014-05-06T20:25:51Z"},"rendered":"
.jpg?w=1000)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t