Building Durham’s field of dreams
By Sabrina Byrnes / Metroland
AJAX — Construction has begun on the ball diamonds at the Ajax Sportsplex, transforming the fields to international baseball/softball standards in preparation for the 2015 Pan Am Games.
This is the second part of an ongoing series looking into the prep work being put into the Pan Am Toronto 2015 Games.?
DURHAM — In Ajax, the municipality is living by the motto, “If you build it, they will come.”
With the Pan Am Toronto 2015 Games 17 short months away, work is ongoing at the President’s Choice Ajax Pan Am Ballpark (Audley Sportsplex). Two soccer fields have been converted into a baseball diamond and an adjacent diamond will be rebuilt with new sod and clay to meet the most up-to-date International Baseball Federation standards. Ajax’s four “pinwheel” fields will host softball training and competitions and will also receive upgrades to meet International Softball Federation requirements.
“There’s a huge international sporting standard that we have to comply with,” said Marilou Murray, one of the Ajax co-chairwomen of the Pan Am Games. “There’s some incredible infrastructure being built.”
Despite the snow and cold, drainage and concrete work is being completed on the diamonds. Work will continue throughout the winter so the fields are finished and ready to test this summer.
Baseball Canada will host a high-level tournament on the Labour Day weekend. There is also a potential softball tournament that has yet to be confirmed. Both events will help organizers tweak the fields and the maintenance so everything is perfect when the Pan Am Toronto 2015 Games start on July 10, 2015.
“A lot of the world’s best (players) are going to be here,” said Tracey Vaughn, the other Ajax co-chairwoman of the Pan Am Games.
The price tag associated with these diamond upgrades comes in at about $9 million. The federal government is putting $5 million towards the project while Ajax is spending $4 million.
Two soccer pitches were sacrificed in order to build the world-class baseball diamond, complete with artificial turf. The original plan was to tear down the diamond and convert it back to soccer pitches when the Games were finished. However, officials have decided to leave the baseball diamond in place and instead convert the community centre fields to artificial turf.
Local soccer organizations will feel the pinch this summer but they have been understanding, noted Ms. Vaughn.
“The local sports groups here have been very good,” she said.
While construction continues in Ajax, in Oshawa very little needs to be done from an infrastructure point of view. The city plays host to weightlifting and boxing at the General Motors Centre. In Whitby, the Abilities Centre will host boccia and judo at the Parapan Am Games that commence on Aug. 7.
Leo Plue, the executive director at the Abilities Centre, said from a structural standpoint the facility is good, nothing needs to be added. It was part of the original bid for the Games and recently won an International Award of Distinction for Sports Facilities.
“Toronto 2015 promoted this building as being the most accessible building in the world,” he said. “The idea of the centre was to act as a model for the rest of the world.”
Up next: We examine some of the sports being played here in Durham during the Pan Am Toronto 2015 Games
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