The city of Saguenay’s indoor soccer stadium was inaugurated Tuesday morning, following a total investment of $26.4 million, several years of reflection and one year of work.
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There were many smiles at the inauguration. Several were in the game, including Councilor Jean-Marc Crevier, who made dome soccer an electoral commitment in 2018, during his municipal campaign.
“In the region, there are more girls who play soccer than boys. It motivated me so much because when you look at any sport in the region, it’s hockey! And to arrive today and to have a beautiful stadium like that, I’m so happy because there have been so many ups and downs.
The synthetic turf surface can also accommodate baseball, football, rugby, ultimate frisbee and spikeball players.
“This is great news, as much for our young people as for our school organizations or for our older children. […] For the first time, our people will be able to play in a closed stadium,” said Mayor Julie Dufour.
“We couldn’t take more than 200 or 300 players in the winter. There we can go up to 1200-1300. The sport-study program [comprend] 150 [élèves], they work here on the pitches so they love it. And for development it’s much better because in the gymnasium it’s small. Here we have a real field, “explained Maxime Pépin-Larocque, general manager of the Club de soccer Venturi de Saguenay.
Strong enthusiasm
You have to act quickly because the time slots are filling up quickly. “There are already between 85 and 90% of all the hours of the year which are already reserved”, was surprised Mr. Crevier.
“The race track, it should be mentioned, has a large time slot. It’s 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily. People can come here with the access card and parents of soccer players have free access to the race track,” added Maxime Pépin-Larocque.
The Venturi Soccer Club will take care of the management of the stadium until December 2023. The City of Saguenay, however, takes care of taking charge of reservation requests.
“We aim in future years to hold tournaments and to welcome all of Quebec if necessary,” projected the general manager of the Club.
Of the total investment, the City of Saguenay contributed an amount of $18.9 million, and the Government of Quebec contributed, through the Support Program for Sports and Recreational Facilities of the Ministry of Education, up to $7.5 million.
Visits from the population
Tours of the infrastructure are offered to the public from Wednesday to Sunday. 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. until Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
Access is free and no reservation is necessary. Everyone will be able to move freely inside, and even try the athletics track for free.
New facilities for the STS
The Société de transport de Saguenay (STS) also took the opportunity to build a new incentive parking lot and a temperate bus station nearby.
The René-Lévesque Station, which will be finalized this fall, will be the first in the borough of Jonquière. Three other similar stations are already available elsewhere on STS territory.
This project cost 2 million dollars, entirely financed by Quebec and the STS hopes that this will encourage many users to opt for public transport.
“It’s heated, we have the internet, people are able to see where the buses are. Next year, it will become one of the bike stations we will have in the borough of Jonquière. We want to increase the quality of our services and I think that with the station here, we are on the right track,” mentioned the president of the STS, Claude Bouchard.