A Message from the Calgary North Soccer Centre

Through conversations, articles and observations, we are excited to see that there are many innovations and connections being made across our community.  We are equally aware of the obstacles and hardships this has caused many.  Our teams are the place where coaches, players, and families celebrate and grow together through this outlet for growth, development, wellness.  In this sea of change and uncertainty, we are all feeling the loss.

For us, this is especially sad as the Calgary North Soccer Centre witnessed an amazing community of coaches, clubs and families coming together when we opened our doors for our first season this past winter.  Our vision was to simply ensure that players feel valued, develop their skills, and thrive.  We’ve had the privilege of building relationships with coaches, parents, and athletes who came from a place that puts development first.  We have an amazing community.  Simply, amazing people.

At that, the timing of this pandemic has hit our summer sports particularly hard with the combination of cancelled seasons, an economic slowdown, and uncertainty of when we can get back to playing again, and the stress around what will be permitted, possible, allowed.   For our centre, that uncertainty is everything.  

After reflecting on the current loss of revenue and the lack of clear timelines on sports being allowed to start up in full, combined with our need to grow the usage in our second year while balancing the most important factor, community health - it seems irresponsible and impractical to carry on. The new normal will certainly impact our ability to operate to the capacity that is required for this organization to be viable, and effective June 1st, we have decided to close the doors.   

Please know that we do not take this decision lightly as this is a huge set back both personally and for the vision of developing better outcomes and better soccer awareness. We have sat in on countless meetings, discussed strategies, been involved in negotiations at many levels, and waited for good news that simply isn't there.  

Our heart breaks - the joy, excitement, and the growth of our past winter season has shown us that this is the right concept for Calgary when it comes to soccer development - it is simply also the worst timing.  This announcement is being made now so that coaches and clubs will have plenty of time to come up with the training solutions they need to put in place.  

Our vision remains the same.  We will endeavour to find ways to get our athletes the turf training that they deserve.  With the current pandemic, however, including the fallout and uncertainty that is expected to stay with us throughout the year, we feel that we must close the doors for now.  We will continue to wait, watch, and wonder what the next steps are as we truly want to find ways to see the Calgary soccer story grow! 

Stay safe, stay healthy,

Calgary North Soccer Centre