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Oppose the proposal by Victory Grounds Ventures to build a privately owned for-profit soccer stadium at the Memorial Centre’s grounds. There are other locations within the City for a private sports facility that do not involve losing a public green space and creating havoc for local residents.

Recently it has become known that the City is in negotiations with Victory Grounds Ventures (VGV) a privately owned for-profit corporation to build a professional soccer stadium on the grounds of the Memorial Centre.  This appears to be part of the City’s bid for a Canadian Premier League soccer team; typically such bids must demonstrate that a potential site for a CPL team has the infrastructure to support the team.  This explains the rush by the City to approve VGV’s proposal without reasonable public consultation.

Williamsville is the densest district in Kingston with the lowest parkland per capita in the City and beyond. Signing over use of a major portion of the community’s greenspace that is regularly used by individuals and community groups to private interests will be catastrophic for public access to physical activity.  The impact of professional league events on a regular basis in the dense residential areas abutting the site include:

·      the privatization of city park and recreation services 

·      financial barriers to Kingston residents’ access to an active lifestyle

·      noise and light pollution (events will be allowed to run up to 11pm)

·      massive parking overflow (the stadium is slated to hold five thousand people; there are currently 164 parking spaces with conflicting information from City officials and the VGV as to whether the barns at the Centre will be demolished to create more parking spaces - about 200 spaces). Whatever the case, parking and traffic will spill over into surrounding streets jamming them

·      loss of parkland in a dense district with very limited greenspace for all to enjoy

·      severe detrimental effects for existing groups’ use of the space including the Farmers Market, the Church Athletic League Hockey, the annual Agricultural Fall Fair, Ribfest and so on.