Two players for the 2019 FC London men’s team who finished second in second place in League 1 Ontario.
Courtesy: Nav Mohan
FC London was founded in 2009. They started with two teams: a senior men’s team and a 21-U team. Fast forward 10 years and FC London has expanded to 25 teams, provides high-level soccer training from age eight and up, has a partnership with Toronto FC, and has successful semi-professional teams for both men and women. Now, they will also have a field to call their own.
For owner Ian Campbell, it was an encounter with Amazing Race host, Phil Koegan, that inspired him to follow a vision. “I met [Koegan] and one of the things he said to me was to write down 10 things I wanted to do in my life. One of them was to build a field with lights…I pulled it out and looked at it the other day and I went ‘I can put a checkmark beside it,” said Campbell, who has owned FC London from the beginning.
The blueprints for Tricar Field. It will have a full-size turf field which can be divided into two nine-on-nine fields. Courtesy: FC London
Tricar Field will be a turf field located on Colonel Talbot road near Lambeth. Tricar – a property management company with buildings all over London – wanted to offer sports camps for underprivileged youth. Through collaboration with Campbell, they agreed to build a turf field to house FC London’s 25 teams’ practices, which will also be used for those sports camps.
For the soccer club, the benefits will surely be seen on the bottom line. “Last year, we registered just over 1,200 hours of rental time from the City of London. Which, when we look back at the amount of money we were paying for 1,200 hours of rental time – even at some of the premium rates we were getting from the city – it’s a lot of money,” explains Campbell.
Campbell estimates that the field will be in operation from 5 am to 11 pm every day in the summer months. It will be home to practices for soccer clubs from ages eight and up for both boys and girls. Campbell is also looking to get investors for a dome to cover the field so it would be in operation in the winter months.
FC London has two semi-professional teams competing in League 1 Ontario. They currently play their games at the German Canadian Club, which won’t change for the time being. “We’ve had a great relationship with the German Club. They’ve got a liquor permit, they’ve got parking, they’ve got a volunteer staff and a field maintenance crew that’s second-to-none,” said Campbell. Tricar Field will not have grandstand seating right away. Campbell estimates that it costs roughly $80 per seat if they were to go that route.
All told, the project will cost $2-million. Tricar already owns the property that the field is being built on. They will also use their own construction equipment, further cutting down on costs. The ground has already been broken on the project which is expected to be finished in time for the 2020 season.
From the city’s perspective, it is beneficial for FC London and Tricar to build London’s only completely privately funded turf field. Parks and Recreation are required to provide a set amount of recreation hours for youth in the city. Tricar Field will free up 1,200 of those hours because it will be eaten up by FC London’s private field. The field time that was going to be dedicated to FC London can now be used for other activities for youth around London.
