Transcona's Bonanza

Winnipeg Sun
Fri Aug 05 2005
By Ross Romaniuk

Transcona expects to hit a financial home run with a new sports park that organizers say will attract 400,000 people per year. 

Buhler Recreation Park -- named in honour of Winnipeg industry magnate John Buhler -- will be a 57-hectare complex and will be completed by 2007. 

"We're expecting the park to raise about $10 million a year, bringing new money into the city," Steve Mymko of the East Winnipeg Sports Association said yesterday. 


TOURNAMENTS 

The windfall is expected to come from economic activity generated by visitors and tournaments, he said. 

"It wasn't that big a challenge, once they saw the benefit," he said of private-sector donations. "Not only to the community but to the economy of the entire city." 

The park in northeast Winnipeg will include two softball "quad" complexes, two baseball diamonds and four soccer pitches. Two more pitches are planned for later. 

As well as a children's playground and walking trails, the site will offer tobogganing, cross-country skiing and a skating pond in winter. 

Best of all, said Transcona softball organizer and player Ross MacIver, is a planned indoor canteen, change area and exhibition centre to remain open year-round. The new bathrooms and high-quality ball fields are long overdue, he said. 

"These diamonds in Transcona now are terrible," MacIver said. "There are no toilet facilities. Tuesday nights, my wife plays out here in a women's league. And you've got to see adult women trying to hide behind trees going to the bathroom." 

Three-on-three basketball courts and a sand volleyball area are also part of the project, said organizer Greg Mandzuk. Construction will begin this summer. 

The city donated $120,000 worth of property for the $5.8-million complex. City hall will also contribute up to $1.5 million, which it raised from sales of surplus recreational land. Ottawa and the provincial government coughed up a total of $3 million. 

Buhler, CEO of Buhler Industries Inc., kicked in $500,000 and will be rewarded with his name on the gate off Murdock Road. 

"I've just heard about some of the problems kids have had trying to get a field to play soccer or a diamond to play ball," he explained. 

"And our seasons are so short, we just need more of these kinds of facilities." 

Mayor Sam Katz (right), with John and Bonnie Buhler in Transcona yesterday.
C.Procaylo/Sun