The project is scheduled to be done this year for the community and Nanaimo United FC to enjoy. (Luis Zablah / CHLY 101.7FM)

The City of Nanaimo is seeking to partner with Nanaimo United FC to install new lighting at the Beban Park athletic fields.

During a July 15th Finance and Audit Committee meeting, members of council adopted a staff recommendation for the city to partner with United FC to install sports lighting at the Beban Park Athletic Fields. Beban Park’s recreational facilities include fields for various sports and activities. Featuring two artificial turf fields and grass fields for baseball, cricket, and soccer. It’s also the home base for Nanaimo United Football Club. Following the committee meeting, at their July 20th council meeting, mayor and council voted in favour of the recommendation as a consent item.

The project is seeking to address the significant growth in youth soccer and the high demand for illuminated evening practice spaces for the upcoming fall and winter months. According to the committee’s report, Nanaimo's current existing illuminated turf fields of Merle Logan, q'unq'inuqwstuxw Stadium and Harewood Centennial Park, are already working at near full capacity.

Jason Coates, director of Nanaimo United FC, spoke on why they chose Beban Park.

“There is some limit to the amount of lit fields, but because our programs are pretty extensive, it's often difficult for us to to really fit everybody in over at appropriate times for their age and the kind of program, and so a lot of our younger programs were spread out across some of the turf fields, some of the grass fields, and it often meant we had to, rent storage at different locations, and our coaches had to really spread out, which often made it difficult for the coaches, for families and so by being able to potentially centralize around our clubhouse, which is our primary, really service center,” said Coates. “So it just made a lot of sense to explore the idea to you know set up. And we don't use it for games. There's a lot of field space for games, but in the evenings, having more lit field space that's central and close to the clubhouse was a really positive thing.”

Even though there are other lighted grass fields located at Pleasant Valley and Departure Bay, Coates confirmed the location of United FC’s headquarters make Beban Park the most logical option. The project is seeking to install new LED lighting systems, set up to ensure they do not interfere with other sports like baseball or cricket.

Charlotte Davis, the city's deputy director of Parks and Natural Areas, commented on the city’s role in the development of this project.

“The city's role in this one was because it's a multi-use field, Beban Park Gyro Field, where the lighting is going is a multi-use field. So, our role was in determining, ‘Okay, so this lighting is going to be added. It's mostly going to be to the benefit of the soccer clubs, but how do we make sure that it doesn't impact the other uses on the field?’ So we provided some guidance on that in helping the secure the proper alignment of the where the lighting will actually go, and then our other involvement will be in actually planning and realizing the project.”

The new lighting system would create four new illuminated practice areas for youth soccer. Davis added they are currently working with United FC on the agreement and she hopes the project will be completed this year.

The Committee’s report clarified the lighting levels would be enough for practices but not official competitive games or other sports like cricket and baseball. Once upgrades are complete, the fields will be bookable by the community, not just by United FC.

Davis spoke on the benefits the lighting improvements could bring to Nanaimo’s families and community.

During a July 15th Finance and Audit Committee meeting, members of council adopted a staff recommendation for the city to partner with United FC to install sports lighting at the Beban Park Athletic Fields. (Luis Zablah / CHLY 101.7FM)

“The improvement overall will be will be that you know I think Beban Park will be elevated very much so as the home of Nanaimo United FC, who are our biggest soccer user group here in Nanaimo, a real grassroots nonprofit group, and I think they'll be able to transfer more of their practices to Beban, that will allow families to all use that same site. Whereby, if in the past, you might have had two kids on the same evening-one practicing at Beban, one practicing at Pleasant Valley. They'll all now be at Beban, which will make it much easier for families as well.”

The total estimated cost for the project is $142,000. Nanaimo FC will contribute $100,000 and the City of Nanaimo will cover the remaining $42,000 drawn from its Strategic Infrastructure Reserve Fund.

Davis commented on the city’s cost sharing agreement with Nanaimo FC.

“It was really great to see how excited council were by this proposition brought to us by Nanaimo United FC, and I think it could be a glimpse into the future for some of our projects. We receive a lot of asks from the community. We have a lot of parks projects and a lot of competing priorities, but when a user group comes to us like Nanaimo United did with you know some cash in hand and a great idea. It made it much easier to say yes to. So we're really appreciative of that partnership.”

While the lighting project will help the community, Nanaimo FC will experience the biggest benefit. Coates commented on what the lighting will add for the club and its programs.

“This would be some perimeter lighting, which would give us quite a bit of space, and it's really aimed at the younger ages. I mean, older sort of teenage age kids or adults would chew the field up in the winter months. So this is really more about a lot of our younger programs, and it also makes for a really good environment because you can keep a lot of them together, and it just becomes a great environment,” said Coates. “It's really more about continuing to build that central hub, some of the culture that I think you saw during the World Cup, and you know, trying to build just that vibe rather than perhaps being spread out.”

He added having practice space near the clubhouse also gives families easier access to washrooms, equipment storage and sheltered gathering space.

The project is scheduled to be done this year for the community and Nanaimo United FC to enjoy.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

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