Place Voyageur Place

A Committee of Council has already secured financing for the new Sports Complex. This may be news to some elected officials, but hard, behind-the-scenes work had been underway before Version 2.0 went to press.

Since Air Canada already has its own centre, a select committee of council had approached other potential sponsors to foot the costs for the new centre to be built at an undisclosed location*. Jazz declined since they are unsure of how long they will fly into North Bay. Bear Skin Airlines insisted on naming the complex The Bear Skin Games Centre and this name was unacceptable to one of the committee members who seemed to be for recreation but against procreation.

Bombardier could not make a commitment to the Centre de Sport because they thought it might raise subsidy issues with Embraer, their Brazilian competitor. They did however promise to water the field on odd-numbered days if they had a water bomber available. Running out of North Bay airlines (Councillor Vaillancourt said he had a conflict of interest and declined the sponsorship), a delegation approached the leading company at the Aerospace Centre. Voila, welcome to Place Voyageur Place.

Under the proposed agreement, Voyageur will underwrite the whole complex, but each field will have its own sponsor. The three playing fields will be Hyundai Field, Nissan Field and Ford Field. The Seniors’ ballpark will be sponsored by a well-known drug company and be called Viagra Place. There was a tight competition between Viagra and Cialis, but since the field will be rented on an hourly basis, the committee thought the former was the more appropriate sponsor. Warm-ups will now be known as before-play time and not included in the rental time.

The football field, named the John Deere Field / Cher Jean Place, will have two sections, one for football (American) and the other for football (European). Each playing field will have a news media centre, which includes a scoreboard console (sponsored by Sony). Local media have all stepped up to the plate and agreed to sponsor these rooms which will be above the hot dog stands (MapleLeaf, Burns and Schneider’s, so far). Access to the pressrooms will be by ladder, except in the Cogeco Play Station, which will use a ‘dumb waiter’ elevator system. This system is in deference to their ageless sports announcer who will be covering all the games at the field on channel 12.

A competition between Pepsi and Coke for the concession soft drinks is underway. Committee members did a blind taste test to select the winner, but the purchasing agent deemed this an unacceptable procedure even though it had been allowed by previous administrations when they granted a beer concession for Memorial Gardens. A sponsorship opportunity is still open for the 36-seat washroom facility attached to the concession booth.

Lighting for the complex is being sponsored by North Bay Hydro who plan to use 7,342,150 LED lights tastefully strung around the entire complex. Unlike street lights, which burn out or phase away, the LED lights will last seven years and three months and use only the amount of electricity to needed power seven estate homes on the escarpment. The added benefit of the LED lights is that they do not attract shadflies.

Grass seed for the ball fields will be supplied by Laporte’s, while Burrows will cover the seeding of the football grids. All fill needed to raise the entire complex so it has all-weather drainage will come from the old CN rail bed. The cost of moving the fill will be offset by future taxes from the sale of lands to abutting property owners. Sponsorship for the paved 300-car parking lot and transit shelter are in negotiation.

The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund will cover the cost of designing the playing complex. This has encouraged a heated race by local architects for the design and project management contract. A local project management firm, whose team contains a former City Hall employee, was disqualified during a closed meeting of the committee.

With construction of the entire complex being sponsored, all that remains is the annual maintenance funding by the local taxpayers. It was suggested that a special line on the tax bill could be used to disclose the maintenance cost of Place Voyageur Place, but this was deemed unnecessary since the cost would be under one million annually for the first two years. A surcharge on the tax bill may be added to all restaurants, hotels and gas stations since they will benefit from increased revenues due to the many tournaments that draw fans and family to North Bay. Two committee members voted against this proposal since they believe it might set a precedent for the Heritage Festival.

Construction for Place Voyageur Place will begin as soon as the snow melts in May. Phase II is already in the works with interest shown by the Davedi Club for a Bocce Centre, the Shriners for a Go-Kart track, a Water Slide by the Kiwanis and a Horseshoe pitch by Barney the Blacksmith. Phase II of PVP will also include a Skateboard Park, a BMX field and an equestrian centre.

* Rumour is that the location of the Sports Complex will be adjacent to the new Regional Health Centre, which will be downsized to meet their new, smaller budget. Much of the land has already been prepared and this would mean the complex could be ready in 2008, not 2009 as originally thought by the committee. City engineers say that the increased traffic to the Sport Complex will not impact the design of the roundabout.