U of T intends to develop Varsity Stadium and Arena to meet the needs of student athletes, university administrators explained in a student town hall meeting on Monday evening.
Vice President and Provost Vivek Goel shared the planned improvements to the athletic facilities during the meeting at Sid Smith Hall.
Plans for the site at the corner of Bloor St. and Devonshire Place include a new regulation-sized track, a bubble dome over the central field and a building containing both meeting rooms and office space for coaches. Varsity Arena will receive larger changerooms.
Goel explained that the plan will be divided into four distinct steps: the first phase at Varsity Stadium, which specifies 5,000 spectator seats, landscape, track and field and foundations for the bubble, will be built with university funds. A student levy will not be necessary to begin the first phase of construction, but outside funding will be essential to the completion of the project.
“It will be possible to identify funding from many different sources,” Goel said.
The total cost of the project is expected to be almost $50 million. If the plan is approved by U of T’s governing council, improvements to the site will be complete by September 2007.
Prior to Goel’s presentation, Rob Venter, vice provost of space and facilities planning, said that the effect of the improvements on student athletics will be “tremendous.”
“There are currently 300 intramural teams looking for space,” Venter said. “This project will accommodate 114 of them.”
Goel’s presentation stressed the importance of increased athletic facilities at U of T, explaining that the improved stadium and arena will “enhance learning beyond the classroom for all students and benefit the faculty of Physical Education and Health.”
Goel and Venter both emphasized the difference between the current plan and previous initiatives to improve the stadium and arena (two major plans to redevelop the site have fallen through in the last two years).
“This plan does not include any residences, commercial activities, or Bloor Street frontage,” Goel said. “The primary focus is to serve the needs of the students.” The proposed bubble over the field will allow use of the facilities throughout the year and the track will be constructed from material that will be usable throughout the winter.
During the question and answer period following Goel’s presentation, Bruce Kidd, dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Health, said that the stadium is not the only athletic facility that needs to be developed, and that the plan proposes fixes for Varsity Arena, which is showing its age.
“Many of the current dressing rooms were designed in 1926,” Kidd said, “where there were only eight or nine people on a team, and the only equipment was sticks, pucks, and copies of Maclean’s magazine stuffed down your socks.”
The students who attended the town hall meeting expressed concerns about the energy efficiency of the proposed facilities, the type of material that would be used for the bubble and track, and the degree of the involvement non-university groups would have with the improvement of the stadium and arena.
Venter, Goel, Kidd, and director of athletics Liz Hoffman addressed all these questions, emphasizing that the improvements are still in the planning stages.
The City of Toronto must approve the height of the bubble before construction begins, and consultation will continue to take place throughout the project between the athletic administration and the student body.
