The Community and Protective Services committee is supporting London Optimist sports centre’s request of a one time contribution of eight hundred thousand dollars to include two playing fields to their current facilities.
President of the Group Tom Partalas is really excited with this decision. “We feel really good. I think is something we expected and of course that’s a nice way to see that the city is going to help us out with our project which is going to be almost 7.8 million dollars,” said Partalas.
City Councillor Phil Squire was really excited with the approval saying this projects will give us the best soccer facility of Canada right here in London, Ontario while helping the community.Squire said, “I have seen the programs out there. For instance, they have 18 year old mix soccer on Saturday nights. So, we are getting kids in the facility rather than being out elsewhere in the city… I know the involvement of the community, so I really like that”
City Councillor Bill Armstrong said this project is a great investment for the city. He said, “This is an A-plus facility, Londoners benefits from having it here. Obviously, Southwestern Ontario benefits from having it here, and in fact, we saw in the report that we have people is coming for tournaments from even the United States.”
Armstrong added, “There’s sports tourism involved. When people bring their kids to play, and they rent a room for the weekend, and they go out for dinner; it has spin off in our community. Creates works too.”
The project still faces city council’s approval to be a reality.
