The president of the North Bay Bulldogs football club wants the city to honour its promise made nine years ago to add change rooms to the Omischl Sports Complex.
In a presentation to city council, Marc Mathon says the current situation is unacceptable.
He told city councillors that out of town teams are forced to change wherever they can find a spot, often within plain sight of the public, which includes children.
“Right now they’re changing in the parking lot, on the grass, in the stands, right in front where all the bathrooms are, underneath the canopy at the back. It’s just all over the place,” said Mathon.
“It’s not a cool thing to be driving in there and see men changing while you’ve got little kids walking towards their soccer fields asking their mother’s why the guys are changing outside. That’s what’s uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable for me being host team seeing our visitors have to go through that. It’s not a positive for the city. I know I’m constantly answering that question, ‘What do you mean there’s no change rooms? Where are we going to change?’”
Mathon says rules dictate that teams are required to provide change rooms.
“Our league, the NFC, the Northern Football Conference has it right in the rules, that part of what the home team has to do is supply change rooms for the officials and the visiting team in close proximity to the field. In other words, on the property.”
Mathon said nine years ago he left a meeting believing that the change rooms would be built by now.
“We were led to believe that change rooms are part of the long-term plan for the Omischl Sports Complex and that they would be working on it but it just wasn’t in the budget at the time for construction,” said Mathon.
“In exchange, they said in the interim, we’ll make sure you have West Ferris arena or Pete Palangio or Memorial Gardens as change rooms. Change rooms being five and 10 kilometres away just isn’t workable for a lot of the teams coming in.”
Mathon said city staff turned down a donation of two portables.
“Staff didn’t think they could be put in for the budget council established, and then they just flatly told us no,” said the Bulldogs president.
On behalf of the 250 families he represents, Mathon wants something done, pointing to plans for a new arena and money spent on a ball diamond.
“We’re asking city council to include change rooms as a priority for next year, so we can proudly host visitors to similar standards as our sister cities.”
Mathon provided council with a solution.
“One of the reasons why I came here is I would like to leave a proposal that can be shared with council. It shows an ideal location that a simple addition to the existing building could accommodate four change rooms and an official’s change room, without breaking the bank. And we’d like to be considered in next year’s budget for that kind of thing.”
On Saturday, 320 football players, along with family and friends will be at Omischl for games, which he says will be a significant contribution to Sports Tourism.
He invited councillors to attend some of the games.
“I’m really hoping that they see it for themselves. It will stick out like a red tomato in a green salad.”
From a player’s perspective, Joshua Ricker calls the situation embarrassing.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to Europe, representing Canada, I got to travel Ontario, and you don’t see this anywhere else. It’s embarrassing, especially when we bring people here for big games four times throughout the summer. It’s a little disrespectful. And then to hear the deputy mayor (Sheldon Forgette) say there’s over $60 million dollars in reserves and there’s still no change rooms.”
Community services chair, Mark King agrees it is a major issue.
“There has been a concerted effort to try and find an answer to this particular problem. It’s unfortunate in the original build that wasn’t thought about. There’s no easy way around this. We’ve got allocated funds for projects. I know right now it’s in excess of $100,000 in order to put a temporary portable down there, that’s why it was never done,” said King.
“Here’s the reality. We have to get on with our arena process to see just exactly where that’s going to be located. That’s a priority in my mind.”
Omischl was one of the suggested locations for a new double-pad arena.
North Bay Mayor Al McDonald offered to meet with Mathon, along with city councillors and senior staff to find ways to address the situation for rest of the year and plan for the future.
Mathon calls it is a good first step.
