The Kamloops Youth Soccer Association is formally unveiling it’s newly-renovated indoor Soccer Dome on Saturday at its location in the Mount Paul Industrial Park.

The indoor soccer facility had been undergoing extensive upgrades over the last number of months.

The changes include new turf with a shock pad under it to make it more forgiving, while also extending it wall-to-wall to allow for more playing room.

Steps have also been taken to make soccer more enjoyable in the winter months through a new indoor heating system.

“Anyone who has played in the Dome before always complained about how cold it was,” admitted Kamloops Youth Soccer Association President Dino Bernardo.  “We’ve insulated it, so that heat will stay in better.”

Bernardo says the Association is thrilled to finally reach this point.

“It’s been a lot of work but it’s really rewarding now,” said Bernardo.  “It was a renovation but really it looks like a brand new facility based on everything they’ve done.”

The upgrades to the only indoor soccer pitch in Kamloops came with a price tag of around a million dollars.

While the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association is paying for a good portion of the upgrades, part of the costs are being covered through the Kamloops Sports Legacy Fund.

“They’re donating $120,000 over the next three years,” noted Bernardo.  “It just goes to show the foresight they had with the sale of the Blazers Hockey Club. The amount of giving they’ve been able to give to the community – I don’t think this project gets approved by our board without that funding.”

The Sports Legacy Fund was created through the money generated by the 2007 sale of the Kamloops Blazers by the former municipal-backed Kamloops Blazers Sports Society to the WHL club’s current ownership group.

The Fund has since gone on to provide over $5 million to local teams and other sports-related groups.

Sports celebrities to attend grand reopening

The ceremony to launch the new-look Soccer Dome is going to include some high-level Canadian soccer talent.

Canadian Olympians Stephanie Labbe and Melissa Tancredi will be in attendance.

Labbe was the goalkeeper for the Canadian squad which won the gold medal in Women’s Soccer at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Tancredi helped lead Canada to bronze medals at the 2012 London Games, as well as the following Olympic tournament in Rio in 2016.

Through support from Teck Resources, Labbe and Tancredi — who have both since retired from international and professional soccer — will be putting on a youth soccer training session following the re-opening ceremony.

That ceremony will take place Saturday morning, 11am at the Soccer Dome site, 313 Nishga Way.

“When you see the smiles on the kids faces – that’s what you’re doing this for.  That’s what is going to be rewarding for us,” said Bernardo.