Owners of six indoor sports facilities in the Hamilton area stand united against a proposal to erect a massive air-supported dome over the playing surface at Tim Hortons Field every winter.

But if city council decides in favour of the dome, those owners want the chance to bid on the project. That open-bid is one of three options presented to city councillors in a staff-prepared dome feasibility study, which will be discussed at Wednesday's general issues committee meeting.

One option is for the city to build its own dome and manage the facility, but there doesn't seem to be much appetite for that, given the capital costs ($3.5 million, according to the report).

A second option is to open the project to competitive bidding, and the third is to negotiate an agreement with John McGrane Services Ltd., in partnership with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Councillors could also decide not to approve a dome at the stadium.

The new report was prompted by last February's "unsolicited submission" by McGrane, in partnership with the Ticats, to erect a bubble dome over the football field.

It would be Canada's largest air-supported dome, allowing room for five indoor soccer pitches, each measuring 85 by 185 feet. One pitch would be reserved for a Hamilton professional soccer team. The other four would be available for rentals and community use.

The dome would operate for about 20 weeks each year before being taken down for the outdoor football and soccer seasons.

In his presentation to council last year, John McGrane said the need for a dome springs out of the anticipated formation of the Canadian Premier League, a professional soccer league the Tiger-Cats have been key players in helping to establish.

Although there have been no formal announcements, the league, heartily endorsed by the Canadian Soccer Association, is expected to kick off in a handful of Canadian cities, including Hamilton, in 2018 or 2019.

The dome would be home to winter practice time for the pro team and to a team-owned "academy," which would fine-tune elite players and provide development for younger players, McGrane said in his presentation. Such academies are common, and necessary, to professional teams.

However, Soccer World owner Duncan Macintosh, speaking for all five indoor facilities consulted in the study plus Ancaster Sports Complex, countered there is already enough inventory of indoor turf fields to meet local needs, including a new pro team and its academy.

"Collectively, the opinion of the six indoor operations is that in the city we have more space than demand," Macintosh told The Spectator, saying there are 14 indoor pitches available, and four more would create a glut, which would severely affect the business of the current facilities.

"But if the city moves forward on a public-private partnership, we'd like an even playing field and an opportunity to participate in that. Five of the six are private enterprises … An unsolicited proposal requires a competitive bidding process."

However, the staff report suggests that the competitive procurement option comes with challenges, "due to the terms and conditions of the existing License Agreement" with the Tiger-Cats. It cites as an example the team's right to approve any capital project work before it can proceed.

The report says the third option — the Ticats and McGrane's company erecting and running the dome — be conditional on several factors.

They include the arrival of a professional soccer team, establishment of the academy, a guarantee the city would bear no capital or operational expenses, the company making a significant financial contribution to a turf-replacement fund, and meeting the community and recreational legacy requirements of the facility agreement.

The city would also receive significant free use hours for recreational and community programming.

Under that option, the city's legal department noted that any agreement would be delayed until litigation involving the city and Ticats (over stadium deficiencies, unfinished and disputed work) is resolved.

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"We are incredibly excited about the future prospects for soccer at the professional, community and amateur levels for Hamilton and Tim Hortons Field," Tiger-Cats CEO Scott Mitchell said via email. "We look forward to working with the City and other local soccer stakeholders in building that future of the beautiful game."

The Hamilton District Soccer Association says in the report there is "pent-up demand" for indoor soccer space.

Coun. Lloyd Ferguson, who was chair of the city's Pan Am Precinct committee during the construction of Tim Hortons Field, said: "We'd love to get extra use of the stadium in the winter, and have programs there, but my main concern is that we want to make sure we're not hurting the private owners who pay taxes. I'll be balancing those."