• Article written by: Justin Dunk
• Article published in: The Ontarion 164.10 (March 24th 2011)
• Article appears on page

 

 

When will ground be broken?

 

Justin Dunk

 

A student referendum was passed in March of 2009 allowing the University of Guelph athletic department to spend 70 million student funded dollars over the next 30 years to fund projects to upgrade the athletic facilities on campus.

 

“Everyone does have a point, but maybe if they were told about the beneficial quality of this it [would] definitely boost our university,” said second-year Gryphon volleyball team member, Kaitlyn Krizmanich. “For the whole university they might re-think and [understand] it’s definitely for everyone not just athletes.”

 

One synthetic playing field has already been constructed. Varsity Field, Guelph’s first synthetic playing surface was opened in Aug. 2010 and is located right beside East residence.

 

The president of the university, Alastair Summerlee and director of athletics, Tom Kendall both have conceded that the current athletic facilities on campus are subpar in comparison to other universities in Ontario and Canada-wide.

 

The W. F Mitchell Athletics was originally constructed in 1941 – 60 years later it is still standing, but is far from a state of the art facility. Mind you, the current athletic centre did have some upgrades done at the start of the 1990s. Nonetheless many people on campus — students and faculty — recognize the need for athletic facilities in order to keep up with other post secondary institutions.

 

“Some [athletes] I’ve talked to love Guelph but they go to the athletic centre…and then they go to McMaster and they choose MAC or somewhere where the athletic facilities are nicer,” said Krizmanich. “I think it will be a positive recruitment [tool] for people who want to come to Guelph.”

 

Some current students have opted to sign on with fitness clubs off campus due to the lack of facilities available at the present W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre.

 

“I actually go to the Athletic Club and the reason I do that is because the school gym here doesn’t meet the needs of anyone that wants to get results,” said third-year political science major, Jeremy Sherman. “Its always packed and crowded and they have only 20-minute intervals for cardio for example.”

 

Some students feel that the money going towards the new facilities is a solid investment.

 

“As a student I feel that it is [beneficial] to me and other students because it might be an increase [in student fees], but I would rather have the money go towards something that interests [students], rather than stuff that doesn’t really benefit students properly,” said Sherman. “It makes more sense to increase size and efficiency of the athletic centre to maximize benefits for everyone. All my friends and roommates would prefer better facilities to use on campus because we are all ready paying for this out of tuition. It’s outdated for sure, but also undersized. It makes more sense if they revamped the size and made it more up to date and more user friendly.

 

Sherman believes the new facilities will create a buzz around the university.

 

“If the [student fees] keep going [up] a little bit for programs and facilities it will only better the image of the University of Guelph.”

 

All of the student referendum money will be used to fund two different projects, the first is the construction of multiplex fields, which will have two artificial and two grass fields just across from Alumni house on East Ring Road. Shovels are expected to break ground for that project as soon as the frost is out of the ground this spring.

 

“As soon as the weather gets suitable they will start bringing stuff in and moving the earth around,” said Guelph athletic director Tom Kendall.

 

There will be two side-by-side synthetic soccer fields that will be fully lit. The two softball diamonds that sit close to Stone Road, will be turned into a natural grass rugby field and there will be one other natural field as a part of the multiplex.

 

“It will be much more than just four fields, it will be a place where people can go and relax, I think it will be pretty cool,” said Kendall.

 

The second project, which will be funded by the student referendum money, will be the development of a new and improved W.F. Mitchell Athletic Centre. The current athletic centre will be expanded out through the back of the facility where the current Gryphon dome sits. The current athletic centre will be renovated and upgraded. The entrance to the athletic centre will be brand new when all of the construction is finished and the link between the old Mitchell centre and the new expansion of the building will be new as well.

 

Essentially, the expansion is for fitness and for recreation. There will be a three-court gymnasium with about 2000 seats in it. Also, a number of studios will be included for different fitness classes, dance and yoga.

 

“There will be a lot of social space in this building where even students who are not interested in being involved in our activities can come and relax,” said Kendall. “We tried to make this more inclusive so that everybody on campus will want to be in this building.”

 

All that will be left in the present Mitchell building will be the gyms and the locker rooms.

 

“The plan is to renovate the locker rooms so that its more convenient because the locker rooms that are in this building are all over the place, so we will put them all on one floor,” said Kendall.

 

Through the entire design process the focus was on making the new athletic centre a place for all students to enjoy.

 

“It’s been planned that way, the focus for the Mitchell centre was on our recreation program and our fitness program more than it was on our varsity program,” said Kendall. “Now obviously we are going to accommodate basketball and volleyball from a competitive standpoint, but really it’s designed for recreation, it’s designed for intramurals and the fitness centre right now is looking [to be] between 22-24,00 square feet, it’s huge, it’s three stories.”

 

“We need people to inform the community about everything that will be available to them. It is beneficial to everyone,” said Krizmanich. “We have put money towards academic buildings first, and now that we have our academic buildings built, we are going towards athletics. I think it was a good idea that they made sure that the academic part of it – which is why we’re here – was taken care of first.”

 

Another important feature of the new facility is the overall size.

 

“It will be state of the art and it will be big enough for 20 000 students, that’s a big part of it. The other thing that I thought was really important was to have a lot of social space,” said Kendall. “I think it will be more of a community-gathering place for students rather then just a ‘jock shop’, that really was the vision we had. It will benefit every student on campus and it will be exciting when it is built.”

 

The timeline in terms of breaking ground on the W.F. Mitchell overhaul and extension is set to take place in the next few years, ideally Kendall would like to have construction of the new athletic centre started in no less then three.

 

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