The new Canadore Dome has only been opened since September but Graham Loyst says the facility is already showing off its versatility to athletes from North Bay and beyond.
Loyst, the sports facility supervisor, says the 85,000-square-foot dome has been able to accommodate 12 teams in multiple sports at one time.
The soccer field alone can be broken down into three sections. So Loyst says two sections could house soccer games involving four teams. In the other section, two teams can battle it out by playing Ultimate Frisbee.
On the courts, two volleyball games can take place involving four more teams bringing that total of teams to 10.
Then factor in a hockey team in the high-performance area and another sports team doing video in the classroom and you have one dozen teams all doing their thing in the new building at one time.
"We have had 12 teams being able to play at the same time which is crazy," admits Loyst.
Loyst says they have also been surprised by the amount of various sports organizations that have reached out to rent.
"We have had cricket teams, track and field athletes, football players, and even players for a game called 'Dome Ball,'" said Loyst referring to the wide variety of sports interest the building is attracting.
"We are trying to be as equitable as possible with our distribution of time. Now that people understand that they can rent the facility everyone is starting to approach us a little bit more and the place is filling up."
Loyst says it has been a challenge managing the public interest along with the use of Canadore College teams and athletes.
"We kind of soft opened in the fall when we only had Canadore programs in here and it was good to be able to work out the bugs," he said.
"It is inevitable when you are opening up a new facility there are always going to be some unknowns. No one here has run a facility like this before so it was nice to have a little bit of time to get things dialed in."
So far Loyst says they have not had to turn away any groups yet but he realizes that may change if the demand continues to rise.
"There may be some difficult conversations to come when we don't have any space left to rent," he said.
However, right now Loyst and the staff are enjoying the enthusiasm that is growing inside the dome.
"The cool thing for me is seeing people getting creative and making ways to use the space and capitalize on the ability to do indoor training in the winter months in North Bay," he said.