Council considers football deck for John Rhodes Centre

If City Council approves the plan on Monday night, you'll soon be able to watch Sault Storm and Sabrecats football games from an upper deck to be added to the back of Brody's Sports Bar and Grill.

Original design drawings of the Rhodes Centre included an outdoor deck, but the structure was never built.

When the Rhodes Centre addition went up, the centre bleachers and public address/announce booth were removed and replaced by temporary units that are currently on the site.

With attendance at the Rocky DiPietro Football Field and Jo Forman Track topping 18,000 a year, Community Services Commissioner Nick Apostle is asking councillors to approve spending as much as $110,000 of public money on the new deck and announcer's booth.

The technical drawings submitted to Council are a bit difficult to decipher, so we've prepared a special architectural depiction to show you what it'll look like. To view the full rendering, please click here.

Money already in the budget?

"The construction budget for the John Rhodes Community Centre Pool project has sufficient funds in it to cover costs on this project of approximately $100,000," Apostle says.

"Although there is money in the construction budget, it would be prudent to allocate as much of this money as possible to a reserve account for future unforseen expenses," he says.

In case Council balks (Apostle said last week that the City can't afford to fix the roof on Memorial Arena), the community services commissioner has also submitted a proposal to have the booth built now and Brodys' deck later.

The PA booth alone would cost between $68,000 and $75,000. The deck alone is expected to cost between $41,500 and $45,500.

A third option mentioned in Apostle's report to Council would be to raise the existing announcer's booth. That carries an estimated price tag of $55,000 to $60,000, which would be reduced by $5,000 to $8,000 worth of free labour offered by a local contractor for the concrete block component of the project.

You tell us

Is this a good idea, or should the money instead be put toward the $150,000-$200,000 cost of a new roof at Memorial Gardens? Your comments are welcome in the News Response feature on our editorial page.