When there’s an issue afoot, being booted by competing community groups seeking public funding, it’s often called a political football. Town council, tasked with deciding who wins this game, is the referee.
Sometimes this referee would rather prolong the game than make a call. Or, better still, have someone else make the decision. So when the Cochrane Lions Football Club – kicking with the Turf Association on how best to plant a fake-grass field in town – teed-up an expedient call, the ref awarded the Lions the ball. Stashing $100,000 in the near term for future political football games (contributing $500K of $600K available town funds) was a bonus.
But what have the Lions, and the Town of Cochrane, won?
Opponents argue they are getting a sub-standard playing surface from a Calgary Stampeders Football Club eager to dispose of McMahon Stadium’s aging FieldTurf. Until now, the eight-year-old material was worthy of elite professional athletes. Even worn, this donated surface should withstand the wear and tear of Cochrane contestants for a few years. Informed concerns about frost heave, field shock-absorption and future usability are also being kicked around in the wake of this Feb. 10 decision.
It’s about here this political football game, and the static spinning from it, can distort the simplest elements on the playing field. So some clarity is in order.
– Two (sometimes three, when St. Tim’s has a team) local high schools and three of four Cochrane Lions football teams play from September to November. Several weeks of the 2013 football season took place in Arctic conditions. Having stood on the sidelines at Bow Valley and Cochrane High, and at all three worn, artificial surfaces of Calgary’s Shouldice Park, the five-year-old plastic/rubber turf in -15 C offered a more-forgiving playing surface than the chunky, frozen steppe of our high-school football fields.
– Cochrane’s rugby and outdoor soccer seasons run primarily in summer. Cochrane Minor Soccer’s website lists 13 grass parks in town, some with more than one field. The Rangers Field soccer facility boasts plush, natural surfaces anyone – including football players – would pay to use in fair weather. While not as inviting as Rangers Field, the Mitford school field on which rugby is played boasts a fairly deep, natural lawn. Why anyone would want to practice or play on a poly/rubber surface in summer instead of on Cochrane’s natural-grass havens is puzzling. Obviously, an all-weather alternative is necessary for the days Ma Nature doesn’t cooperate.
– Soccer is being played every day, right now, at Spray Lake Centre’s Philergos Field. While not a full-size soccer pitch, the carpeted indoor hockey rink is home to league play, pick-up games and clinics for all ages. Soccer already goes year-round in town.
– Football players wear full protective padding and helmets. Field shock-absorption is not as vital for them as in rugby, where players “smash ’em!” without much more protection than tape, boots and an athletic cup. After belting each other as vigorously as they do over the summer, would a softer field really benefit rugby?
Bottom line: Regardless of the claimed needs of its divergent user groups, for a $500,000 contribution Cochrane gets a $1.5-million artificial all-weather outdoor playing surface planted on a mound of soil beside Bow Valley High School. All are welcome to use it.
Will this put an end to the political football being kicked around town? Not even close.
