While this may be old news, many local swim athletes from Airdrie and Rocky View County are still frustrated with the lack of competitive-sized pools in the community.
Airdrie’s council voted last June to forgo a design of their new southwest recreation centre that included a 50 metre pool, and instead opted for a 25 metre pool.
In a recent interview, head coach of Nose Creek Swim Association (NCSA) again brought up the fact that their club has to go to larger centres for many practices and all their swim meets.
NCSA currently has over 300 swimmers from all over the area, but there are two more swim clubs in the community: the Airdrie Phoenix Swim Club and the Airdrie Synchro Aqua Stars. Aside from those clubs, young athletes wanting to play water polo or other water sports must head to Calgary.
With an ever growing population, each of the clubs can expect to see more athletes join their roster in the coming years.
Swim clubs have the opportunity to host their own events and swim meets, but Airdrie is missing out on reaping the benefits due to their meets being held mostly in Calgary.
Airdrie doesn't have enough deck space in their existing pool for families to watch their young athletes compete, leaving families frustrated.
At the time of their decision, council felt it most closely aligned with public feedback about the future rec centre and was in the best interest of the majority of people. But was choosing an option that wouldn’t bring an influx of people who would sleep, eat, and purchase things from local businesses, a benefit to more people?
Kids from Airdrie, the County, and even the City of Calgary, compete for teams based in Airdrie.
By bringing all these families into Airdrie, there may have been an opportunity to capitalize on that influx. Could additional revenue have been used to add a leisure component to the pool in the future instead of limiting the facility to just a small pool focused on leisure now?
