The complex will be located on 172 acres of City owned land off of Shellard’s Lane near Conklin Crescent. The complex will be part of a broader sports area containing baseball diamonds and soccer fields along with a community centre. The City will construct the complex. The Brantford Bisons will run the complex under a lease agreement with the city. A consultant is in the process of being hired to develop a site plan for the area which will be completed this year. The complex completion date is targetted for 2013-14.
This football complex will be unique for Ontario and even Canada. No community has a football complex that consists of three artificial fields, a sports dome and is administered by the non-profit football club. Once the complex is built, it will be a model for other sports groups and communities to follow. In fact, many communities from across Canada will visit Brantford to see how we did it.
The complex will consist of three fields with room for a fourth, running North/South, a sports dome, a main building that may be attached to the community centre, a media booth and a pre-fabricated steel building. The entire complex will be fenced by six foot chain link fencing with access points for fans, emergency equipment and maintenance equipment.
Two of the fields will be our main fields that will be for football only and the third field will be designed for multi-purpose use to allow soccer championship games or tournaments to take place. The fields will be CFL in size and will use FieldTurf instead of natural grass along with single goal posts and player benches. The two main fields will have a time clock a P.A. system and will seat 1,000 people, while the multi-purpose field will not have a time clock or a P.A. system but will seat 500. All fields will have lights. The fields will be fenced by four foot chain link fencing with access for the players, emergency vehicles and equipment. The stands will be made of metal, not wood. The fourth field will be for future expansion.
The sports dome will be available all year round but will be used mostly over the winter months to provide an in-door training facility for football, soccer, baseball or any other sports group that would like to have an in-door facility. The dome will be 240x150x45 in size and will be built by The Farley Group.
The main building will be located near the front entrance and will be two stories. The first floor will contain four change rooms with showers and a blackboard for football players, a change room for Officials, a concession and fund-raising booth, public washrooms, storage space for football equipment (pads, helmets, etc.) and 2,000 square feet for specialized athletic training. There will also be office space for staff to adminster the sports dome. The second floor will contain meetings room for the BDFC Board and the AGM.
The media booth will be located in the middle of the two main fields and will be two stories. The first floor will contain all pads, sticks, line markers, etc. that are needed for games. The second floor will have two P.A. systems (one for each main field) and room for reporters.
The pre-fabricated steel building will be located beside the third field (the practice field) and will contain equipment needed to maintain the Field Turf fields along with the sleds and any other outside equipment that requires winter storage.
For More Info:
http://www.brantfordbisons.com/bdfccomplex.php
Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.
