It was the last day lugers had to race on the track at WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park this season, but there are doubts about whether there will ever be another season there.

Back in February, WinSport announced it would not be able to proceed with a renovation project on its sliding track because it couldn’t afford the $25M price tag.

The track, that was built for the 1988 Winter Olympics, needs a new refrigeration system and a number of other upgrades.

Tim Farstad, the executive director of Luge Canada, says the track’s closure “wouldn’t be good.”

“This track has a huge impact on Calgary and not just our community. We’ve been here for 30 years and we do events. We have kids sliding, we have the public trying it, we have events that bring in millions of dollars over the past 30 years to this city.”

He says without the local track, the young athletes will have to go elsewhere to get the training they need to progress.

“Right now, we have a great pipeline of Calgary kids involved in luge because they’re right here and close and can be involved. Obviously that would change. If they get involved, I don’t know, but we’d have to start building up in Whistler and I guess around the world.”

Beth Van Wow’s 12-year-old son, Bastian, competes in luge and says the sport always makes him happy.

“He says he wants to do it again next year if there’s a track.”

She adds it would be a shame if the opportunity is lost.

“He finally found something outside of that regular hockey, baseball-type stuff and enjoyed it. It makes it tough to find those different sports.”

Farstad says most of the members of Canada’s Olympic team, at least the medalists, have all been from Calgary.

“They’ve all grown up here. They’ve been excited about the sport since the ’88 Games.”

He hopes the track will stay open and is optimistic that this isn’t the last year for the track in Calgary.

Stephen Harris, the president of Luge Canada, says WinSport is still in talks with the government about how to raise enough money to keep the facility open.

“It’s really disappointing that it’s come to such dire talks and dire negotiations to keep this going when these legacies have been a strong part of the community for the past 30 years.”

Harris says he wants to make sure the track stays open for the kids’ sakes.

“All the other attributes these kids are learning as being part of a team and learning this sport. Many of them might not go on to become a national team member or an Olympian but the activity, health and wellness and education that this provides to kids as another great outlet of activity is great.”

Dale Oviatt with WinSport says Sunday is the last day of the track’s operation for the winter season and the ultimate plan is to reopen, but talks are still ongoing towards that end.

“March 3 was our scheduled closing. Typically, we open in October and our planned closing is early March.”

He says the bottom line is that the cooling system is at the end of its lifespan and they cannot continue with it any longer.

Oviatt says they also need to come up with a plan for the future of the track too.

“The failed Olympic bid was really a problem for us. That just made us start to rethink things and that’s why we put a pause on this project.

Various orders of government have pledged $17M towards the project, but there is another $8M that the facility needs to raise.

(With files from Ina Sidhu)