A report presented at council shows over $10 million dollars worth of upgrades is needed for Prince George baseball diamonds and sport facilities.
This is due to many of them being built in the 1970’s to the bare minimum standards and, in turn, now do not meet the current standards in some cases.
Another issue is shaky participation which is partly due to the exclusive-use agreements which take up 72% of city inventory.
“The group has sole use of that facility, they schedule for their own use and they continue to reinvest in it while we do the heavy lifting of the maintenance,” explains strategic parks planner, Laurie-Ann Kosec.
“What that means is over time the sport participation rates can change, all of a sudden you could have less use.”
About one-third of PG baseball diamonds and sport facilities are at, or near, the end of its life cycle, according to the report presented at council.
Parks division community coordinator, Robyn McConkey, says they would like to upgrade the parks to bring in more major events.
“People want to host tournaments in our community; they want those centralized, clustered facilities built to the proper size dimensions and they’d like some reinvestment in those facilities,” she says.
“It is important, it’s a huge economic generator and Tourism Prince George is already working with the city to develop part of that.”
Prince George is set to host the 2022 B.C. Summer Games.
An open house on the 2018 Ball Diamond and Sport Field Strategy will be held in the Kin Lounge on Thursday, January 25th, from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.
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