Public consultation held on proposed baseball and soccer facility in Regina

On Wednesday, the City of Regina held public consultations on a proposed outdoor baseball and soccer facility, one of several catalyst projects under construction.

It’s what Regina’s baseball community has long been pushing for, a new stadium to replace Currie Field.

“A very great plan that we finally put Regina on the map,” said Steve Hom of Baseball Regina.

The original pitch was for a 3,500 seat ball stadium on the former rail yard downtown. It is being scaled back to 2,000 seats with an adjacent soccer stadium of similar size.

“We’d just be happy to get something new rather than Currie which is more reflective of what our community needs to be,” said Al Simpson with Living Skies Entertainment.

Proponents still prefer the rail yard site but Taylor Field is also being considered. It would be managed by the REAL District.

“We’ve defined need both on the synthetic soccer facility and the outdoor events centre for baseball. We haven’t proven the feasibility of those models yet,” said Tim Reid, CEO of the Real District.

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There was a full house for a public consultation session as the city considers ways to revitalize the city core.

“That will attract commerce, that will attract people, that will attract grocery stores,” said Coun. Bob Hawkins.

Some who attended the sessions questioned whether it will lead to revitalization.

“The issue with the downtown is that they didn’t look at the social impact with the people. They just looked at the commercial impact,” said Regina resident Kelly Miller.

Now that the scope of the project has been expanded to include both baseball and soccer, the cost estimate has doubled to $25 million. Still it remains by far the least expensive of the catalyst projects and is shovel ready, something proponents hope will drive the combined soccer baseball facility to the top of the priority list.