Nearly four months of work to renovate the Kamloops Soccer Dome on Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc is expected to get underway next week.

It comes as the City of Kamloops approved a loan to the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association to help maintain the indoor turf facility at 313 Nishga Way for another 25 years.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly says the loan will help maintain the Tournament Capital’s only indoor field while a new facility is worked on as part of the Build Kamloops initiative.

“We know we need that field, so we are working to help provide a loan for that surface to be rebuilt in there. And that has to happen,” O’Reilly said. “If we lose that, we lose an artificial field but as well as when winter recreational time as well, and and so we thought that was important.”

Kamloops Youth Soccer Association General Manager Lyle Dos Santos says the plan is to completely restore the facility.

“So it’ll be a new surface, new turf, and new lighting. We’re going to an LED lighting system which is much more efficient. A new efficient heating system and a new exterior cover on the facility,” Dos Santos told Radio NL.

“It’ll also be insulated so now it’ll never close in the winter, it’ll be ready to go for the worst of conditions outside.”

Dos Santos also said its not just KYSA that will benefit from the renovated facility telling Radio NL it is used by about 42 different groups around the year.

“The demand for indoor facilities is very high, and so not just from Kamloops youth soccer but other organizations here locally, soccer and other sports they need the facilizes that they can train in,” he said. “Ultimate frisbee, baseball, the list goes on and on and on, and so we really do need access to more facilities.”

“The city has a great plan in place for exactly that but this becomes a temporary holding ground to the rest of the community to have access to a facility that will be ready to go. As part of the Build Kamloops initiative, we’re really excited to get that started.”

Dos Santos says the total project will cost about $900,000, with KYSA expecting to pay back the money it borrowed from the City over five years.

“Thank goodness the KYSA Board had bought that facility pre-COVID because we wouldn’t be able to do a new build and so we started to look at the pricing, the costs, and things are expensive,” Dos Santos said.

“We can afford to do it, but it made a big difference being able to get a loan from the city rather than going through private through banking. It made it much more affordable.”

“That’s a partnership, and that’s something that we value, and we value the soccer community,” O’Reilly added, noting Kamloops taxpayers won’t be on the the hook for the renovation cost.

“Obviously the deals that have been signed and bringing in international teams as well, and World Cup coming up, we think there’s a lot of opportunities there to build off of.”

The renovated Kamloops soccer dome is expected to be open in October.

– With files from Jeff Andreas