Calgary softball, cricket leagues struggle to keep up with demand due to limited space

CBC

a day ago

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Now's the time of year that Calgary's outdoor athletic facilities are filled with players of all ages, leaving leagues to compete for access to limited space.
Calgary Minor Softball sport director David Dansereau said putting players on the field has been a struggle as the youth leagues grow in popularity.
"It was a challenge just even to schedule games," he said. "You're fighting with availability of space, and whether they're practicing or they're playing games, it's just a struggle to get them on the diamond."
He said having to compete with demand from adult recreational leagues means he is "really struggling" to get kids on the field.
"It's a challenge to get diamonds, especially this time of year," he said. "[Adult league] bookings start to take over, so it's a challenge to get diamonds for the kids."
Dansereau said the league has added 12 teams and grown by 144 players this year.
"Every year there's more and more teams wanting to play, and more and more people," he said. "We emphasize activity and we just don't have the space to do it with."
Sometimes fields get booked but then don't get used, leading to "wasted time and wasted space," he added.
Last year's water main break and subsequent flooding of Shouldice Athletic Park, which has eight softball diamonds, has contributed to the space availability problem, Dansereau said. The park will fully reopen the week of July 14, according to the city.
Struggles around space are also affecting Calgary cricket groups like the Future Cricket Stars League, which has had to cap registration to ensure players get enough field time.
"It's obviously been tough, just like other sports as well," said league founder and director Hamza Tariq.
"The city has been doing a decent job trying to get fields up and running for cricket, but we are still in need [of] more fields."
He said beyond demand from adult players, part of the problem lies in the quality of the city's facilities, many of which do not meet the "special specifications for a cricket field."
"We have fields, but are they good enough for cricket? Probably not," said Tariq, pointing to the ground not being level enough, as an example.
"You need a turf wicket, which is made out of clay, but right now we're playing on cement wickets," Tariq said.
"And that's where the challenge lies, because when you talk about development, it's quite tough to help kids develop their skills if you're playing on makeshift pitches and fields."
City creating more athletic facilities
Tariq said he is "super excited" for the creation of a new athletic complex in northeast Calgary, which according to the city, will include Calgary's first-ever dedicated cricket field.
"That's probably going to be one of the best fields in the country," he said.
Located in Saddle Ridge, the facility does not yet have a completion date confirmed.
It's one of numerous recreation facilities being built as part of the City of Calgary's " GamePLAN" public recreation strategy, a blueprint through which the city aims to build 43 new athletic park fields for a total of 89 — one per 22,000 Calgarians — by 2050.
Dansereau said the city could also help with the softball problem by repurposing unused soccer fields into ball diamonds or refurbishing diamonds that are "overrun with grass and not maintained."
He said having more space would generate revenue for the city by bringing in teams from outside of Calgary for tournaments.
"If we had more space, we would hold more tournaments, and we'd have more availability to run provincials," he said.