Money would be for road and other work, new fieldhouse

The Fabio Belli Foundation is asking the city for $2.95 million towards the construction of a soccer dome next to Lasalle Secondary School in New Sudbury.

Members of the community services committee will decide July 9 whether to direct staff to make a business case for the money as part of the 2019 budget process. That means the final decision will be made after the October municipal election.

The Foundation is looking for $2.2 million for roadwork necessary for the dome, as well as $750,000 for a 5,000 square-foot fieldhouse with washrooms, meeting rooms and change rooms.

In addition to the capital dollars, the Foundation is also looking for $25,000 a year in operating money.

The dome itself is being built thanks to a $4 million grant provided by the province, which was announced in April by outgoing Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault, a friend of Belli.

Other funding includes $1.1 million from the Rainbow District School Board, and $500,000 raised by the Foundation.

Construction begins this summer, with occupancy expected by January of 2019. The fieldhouse would be built next summer.

The dome, which will host soccer and baseball activities during the long winter months, will be named in honour of the late Fabio Belli, the city councillor and rabid sports fan who passed away in 2014. Belli had made the construction of a soccer dome a personal priority.

The $1.1 million provided by the school board — which will pay for the artificial turf surface — comes from provincial funds provided under the School Condition Improvement capital allocation.

The fund is meant to be used on upgrades to school sites, and that includes playing fields, said Dennis Bazinet, the Rainbow board's superintendent of business.

Norm Blaseg, education director at the Rainbow District School Board, said during the April funding announcement that students from all school boards will have access to the dome, as well as schools in Espanola and Manitoulin Island.

The school board is also building a new junior kindergarten to Grade 6 school on the Lasalle campus starting next year (they received $12.6 million from the province for the project).

That means there will be about 1,000 students directly on site who will be able to make regular use of the facility, Bazinet said.

The school board will use the dome during the day when school activities take place, but after 5 p.m. and on weekends it we be available to the public.

The soccer dome has been a source of some controversy for the Rainbow board.

In December 2016, a trustee with the board, Tyler Campbell, who also worked for the City of Greater Sudbury, stepped down in the wake of conflict of interest allegations related to the project.



A freedom of information request showed Campbell had communicated with elected Greater Sudbury officials about potentially working with the Rainbow board on building a soccer dome on school board property.

-With files from Heidi Ulrichsen