Wednesday, August 21, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
In these last few days ahead of the big re-opening of an expanded Westhills Stadium in Langford, there has been a flurry of push-hard 12-hour construction days with as many as 200 crew workers on site at the city-owned facility.
Flanked by Langford Parkway on the one side, Westhills Arena administration building on east end, and Glen Lake Road on the other side, Westhills arena has been expanded from the original 1,600 up to now 6,000 seats this year. It’s a combo of using portable bleacher sets (at either end of the field) in addition to building Stand A and Stand B on either side of the original small seating area, and in July and August now Stand C on the west end.
The stadium expansion includes eight additional VIP suites for a total of 18 which supports stadium revenues. There are also new concession areas, more change rooms and more washrooms.
Crews in these past few weeks have been working on landscaping, irrigation, mechanical, electrical, carpentry and more, explained City of Langford Parks & Recreation Manager Cory Manton during a media tour of the facility on August 20. “We’ve been on ‘Langford time’ for months,” said Manton expressively. That means whatever needs to get done, gets done…. on time and on budget.
Manton explains that Westhills Stadium is home to Rugby Canada, Pacific FC, the West Shore Rebels, and “all sports” in Langford.
Behind the stadium itself with access from Glen Lake Road is the long-awaited and much-promoted Sarah Beckett Memorial Playground. The land purchased for that on Glen Lake Road required demolition of an old house, removal of tall stands of old growth trees, some excavation, and ultimately installation of playground equipment, a rubberized surface, brick walkway installation, and landscaping.
The playground’s colour theme is primarily red and blue, being thematic of the RCMP colours. Cst Sarah Beckett was an officer with the West Shore RCMP; her tragic death while she was on duty April 5, 2016 in an early-morning vehicle crash on Goldstream Avenue at Peatt Road.
During the media tour the busy, waste-not-a-moment skilled attention to all aspects of facility completion — both the stadium and the playground — was like being airlifted into a beehive. Everyone going about their work intently, without interruption or distraction.
An area next to Stand C — which includes a pond — will be able to accommodate small gatherings including live entertainment and food vendors. With a capacity for about 2,500 people the city expects the City Centre outdoor hub to be a focal point of outdoor family and sports-fan activity in the months and years to come.
What’s the price tag on this recreational facility expansion? Mayor Stew Young says the stadium upgrade is coming in just under $10 million. That was for stadium and parking and reworking of the pond plaza (behind Stand C), as well as roadworks in the area.
The other aspect of the construction budget is about $1.5 million which includes the Sarah Beckett Memorial Playground, a building for Boxing BC (construction to begin this fall), and the climbing wall that is yet to come. Watch for another ‘grand opening’ in August 2020 for that aspect of the facility to be collectively unveiled.
Meanwhile, fundraising for the playground project by Rotary of the West Shore has been robust. As of yesterday, the total raised is $175,000 of the required $250,000. That’s all been achieved just since the Rotary’s Lobsterfest that was held March 2 at the Langford Legion.
“I’m so thankful and touched by the support from the community,” says Dianna Seaton, who has spearheaded the playground fundraising effort. Engraved bricks have been selling for $200 each, and sponsorships have been rolling in at $1,000 each.
Larger donations of $10,000 have rolled into (including from Keycorp Developments) and in-kind donations of 30,000 each have been received from Tire Stewardship (a scrap tire recycling program in BC) and Kal Tire (their Kal Tire Replay Fund offers competitive grants to access products made from recycled tires).
Westshore Chamber of Commerce president Mike Reilly who helped coordinate the fundraising booth at last weekend’s 9th Annual Show and Shine car show on Goldstream Avenue, said several more of the engraved bricks for the playground were sold, that the 50/50 draw brought in $880, and that the food concessions that day generated $1,600.
The media tour wrapped up yesterday afternoon with an exotic buffet lunch by local Langford restaurant House of Boateng, which was held in the City of Langford VIP suite.
The city’s VIP has a capacity of about 50 people, equipped with small kitchen, bar, and TV screen for viewing the game as broadcast live. Two rows of seating on the covered platform outside of the suite is padded for guest comfort.
The smaller suites have about 14 to 27 seats. Suite holders can pre-order food and beverage service which is prepared on site on the same upper level as the suites, for easy delivery. Pacific FC leases out the suites.
Pacific FC Operations Manager Brad Norris-Jones is pleased with how the expanded stadium will serve the new soccer team’s operations going forward. He says the supporters with drums and flags who loudly support the team at field level each home game are part of the small European feel of the stadium experience that Pacific FC has worked to promote. “Supporters are a fabric of the stadium,” said Norris-Jones during a media interview on Tuesday.
There is storage under the stadium for the sports day field boards. There is plenty of equipment around, including GPS-equipped vehicles that paint the appropriate lines onto the artificial turf for each type of game (or remove the lines afterward) — different lines and colours are required for rugby, soccer, and other games).
There was rain today in Langford, but construction continued. Manton explained that construction made good progress in hot weeks of July and August (a four-week break with no Pacific FC home games) during which time seating in the stands (previously bolted into place) was repeatedly glued. That was just one example of the many details for putting together the new expanded stadium.
All of this comes together one one big day — Saturday August 24. Tickets are still available. You’ll find the tickets page on the Pacific FC website.
And Langford’s long-view mayor Stew Young is already thinking about August 23 or 24 for 2020 when a big concert is planned for the next round of launching Langford’s profile as an entertainment centre on south Vancouver Island. There might even be an announcement about a new baseball stadium by then, stay tuned next year for that! The large Pacific FC training facility on Kettle Lake Road in Westhills will be big enough for large indoor games once it’s finished.
Speeches on August 24 this year will be made by Premier John Horgan and Langford Mayor Stew Young … both at the playground (1 pm) and in the stadium (grand opening there starts at 2 pm).
