Canada Packers Sports Complex officially opens

Overlooking the old, washed-out Brandon Youth Soccer Association Park now sits a true spectacle of a soccer facility.

Just a kilometre up First Street, and four precious metres of elevation higher, is the Canada Packers Sports Complex, which celebrated its grand opening on Friday as Mayor Jeff Fawcett and Brandon East MLA Glen Simard cut the ribbon in front of Cougars Field.

Nearly everyone in attendance was in good spirits as the Brandon University Bobcats men paused their training session to listen to speeches from Fawcett, Simard, St. Boniface-St. Vital MP Ginette Lavack and Canada Packers director of operations Rob Ackerblade.

Discussions about a new soccer facility started when BYSA Park flooded in 2011, leaving the soccer community without a home.

After years of consulting and deliberation, then a few more years of landscaping and building, the $19.6 million facility is in operation, featuring five natural grass soccer fields, a cricket pitch with two batting cages, Sunrise Credit Union Clubhouse and Cougars Field, the FIFA-regulation, artificial turf pitch.

While BYSA Park wasn’t totally lost in 2011 and ended up hosting soccer off and on since the flood, it has been subject to many more washouts, including this spring, when the entire facility was underwater.

“It was reused; it never recovered,” Fawcett said.

“By the time it was in that process of recovering, it would get water again. It had gone through a cycle of 40 years with no water and then it seemed to not be able to go three or four years without sitting, silty water for a long time.”

CPSC, located at 360 Veterans Way, is far enough from the floodplain to avoid the same fate.

It includes a few different-sized soccer fields, as Fawcett said was requested by BYSA and Westman Regional Soccer Association to accommodate players of all ages. The turf field was certainly in high demand, as it extends the outdoor soccer season in both the spring and fall during times grass simply can’t grow the way soccer has in Brandon.

Simard said one of his first tasks when he was appointed as Manitoba’s minister of sport was to “green light” the last phase of the province’s more than $6 million in funding for the facility.

“No-brainer,” Simard said. “It serves not only Brandon but the entire Westman area. Having the WRSA as a key user, I think you’ll see some stunning development.

“It demonstrates that Brandon deserves great things and this is a premium facility that has already stepped up to host a national event. The fact that we have two college- or university-level soccer programs with four teams taking advantage of it, it’s just great.

“I think back to the summer when we had the (Brandon) World Cup; that was pretty impressive to see so many teams come out and participate. It’s a gathering space; it’s really demonstrating the popularity of the sports here in Brandon and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Canada Packers is a fitting title sponsor for the facility. As Ackerblade pointed out, the pork processing plant employs more than 2,300 people from more than 30 different countries. Many of them have become integral parts of the local soccer community.

“I am so excited to see how … for generations to come, as kids grow up in Brandon … how proud the parents are to come and see that big sign out front and watch their kids play a sport they love,” Ackerblade said.

“It’s a beautiful facility, so I couldn’t be more proud to represent the hard-working team today.”

The clubhouse features four team change rooms and an officials room separate from public washrooms, as well as a canteen and a multi-purpose room that can hold up to 75-80 people, said the City of Brandon’s manager of parks Bryce Wilson.

The City of Brandon website lists the annual budget for expenditures being around $483,000, with more than half going to Livingstone Landscaping to maintain the facility with mowing, weed whacking and chemical application. A portion of that cost is offset by rentals.

There isn’t a dedicated staff person working at the facility yet, so Cougars Field rentals require a City staffer or someone from a contracted security company to unlock the gates.

Moving forward, Wilson said there are plans to add four fields east of Cougars Field, which Assiniboine College named when it signed a 15-year, $475,000 deal that comes with preferred field times, access to signage and two change rooms outfitted with Cougars logos for their Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference teams.

The City put $6 million into the project, while the federal government added almost $4 million.

“If we didn’t have that,” Wilson said, “we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

Cougars Field has been Assiniboine College’s home for a full season now, and the Cougars will kick off the 2026 MCAC campaign there on Sunday against the St. Boniface Les Rouges.

In 2027, the facility will draw attention from around the country as it welcomes the top college men’s soccer teams. Brandon University is hosting the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national championship on Nov. 10-13.

“It has been years and years and years (in the making), and it’s fantastic. It’s great to see when it’s active, and it’s been pretty active all year this year,” Fawcett said.

“We’re very, very fortunate with the Cougars Field because we can play late into the year with this. It allows a November national championship in the prairies.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com