Sports Centre is empty most days except for employees, so it shouldnt make a big difference.

Just drove by there. 20 cars in parking lot. Went in, only could see 3 people on staff. Not bad for the middle of summer and middle of the day. Wait till September again and actually go inside lots of students and general public either walk or take the bus there.

3 People on staff for less than 20 people, Hmmmmmmm.

Student fees are covered by their tuition, so additional revenue will have to be generated by new customers. Dont see that happening in the near future, so it looks like UNBC and the City will have to subsidize this $33 Million project to the tune of $300,000.00 per year each, as they project revenues of only $400,000.00 per year.

Rather interesting that when they originally came up with the idea it was going to generate $900,000.00 in revenue, and the costs would be in the area of $900,000.00 so it would not be a burden to taxpayers. So much for that scenario.

Typical Government and City Hall accounting

Kind of like most, sorry all recreation facilities in town. They all take money to operate and don't turn a profit.

I cant believe we still find time to argue over whether or not the Sports centre should have been built. Its an awesome facility that was needed for the sports teams at UNBC. They had been forced to play in sub par conditions at CNC for years and that hampered their growth. We now have a Mens and Womens team that are both close to being accepted in CIS which is great news for our fast growing University.

Not only do the University basketball and Soccer teams benefit from this, the public does too. Go talk to the board members of the Massive Prince George Soccer League and ask them if it didnt help them out with scheduling and time placement of games. The fees are extremely affordable and when Students ARE IN CLASS the place is busy. They went home for summer break as did alot of people in PG. Did anyone notice the turnout for the provincials? Huge. Guess how big the Nationals will be? MASSIVE.

Anyone else tired of the whiners in this town that cant seem to find anything better to do than shoot down the good things that are happening? It'd be great if we had a few less victims in this town and maybe a few more people willing to look at solutions. Hopefully we will see a few of you out at the games this year. Any of them. (soccer, basketball, racketball, handball. I hear soon to be Volleyball. Pick one.)

"Anyone else tired of the whiners in this town that cant seem to find anything better to do than shoot down the good things that are happening"

That makes at least two of us . . . LOL.

Just to be clear, I wasn't shooting it down, I am supporting it. I never use the facility, I know my taxes will ultimately go towards supporting it but thank you all for the taxes you do pay, that go towards facilities I do use.

I realise that lunarbase. We all pay taxes for programs that none of us use but that doesnt mean that those programs should be cancelled. A mass amount of tax money goes to keeping criminals in jail, helping drug addicts, and Employment Insurance. I dont know about you guys, but I have never been to jail, I don't have a drug problem, and I have been employed with a steady job since I was 16. I dont use ANY of these services but I fully support their existence AND my tax money being used to further their advancement.

I realise that lunarbase. We all pay taxes for programs that none of us use but that doesnt mean that those programs should be cancelled. A mass amount of tax money goes to keeping criminals in jail, helping drug addicts, and Employment Insurance. I dont know about you guys, but I have never been to jail, I don't have a drug problem, and I have been employed with a steady job since I was 16. I dont use ANY of these services but I fully support their existence AND my tax money being used to further their advancement.

All your arguments are banal. Most people who post here shoot from the keyboard with little or no thought going into what they are saying.

Firstly the Provincial Government told the City that they had $25,000,000.00 available for sports oriented facilities that would enhance the 2010 Olympics, and that the City and UNBC would have to contribute $5 Million each, and come up with a proposal. The sportsplex was the proposal and the original draft outlining the costs etc indicated it would not be a burden to taxpayers. After they got the money and construction started it was revealed that taxpayers and UNBC would be stuck to the tune of $300,000.00 each per year to run this facility. This number will increase substantially as years go on.

We could have just as easily built basketball courts at the University along with some weight rooms for approx $5 Million dollars and the University would have been happy, however we needed to spend the $33 Million so we came up with a bunch of additional facilitys that to say the least are being under utilized.

There is a responsible way and a irrisponsible way to conduct City and Government. If you are going to be irrisponsible do it with your own money, not tax dollars.

If half the people who support these projects when they are being built would get off their butts and support them by actually joining the facility then the facility might generate some revenue.

I joined the Sports Centre and I can tell you that its mostly the same people going there day after day. At any given time you are lucky to count 30 people in the whole complex. You never see any of the local politicians.

Now on to the Performing Arts Centre so that we can have another huge facility sitting empty and costing a fortune to run.

In the meantime we can go back to gravel roads, outdoor toilets, and get our water from the rivers. What do we need infrastructure for when we can have an indoor facility to play soccer.

Are we forgetting that it is summer? That it is nice outside? That the main user group the students are gone? I am a member of the Sports Centre but I can personally say that I haven't been in it for several weeks even though I still pay a membership, choosing instead to spend my time outside. I think that is the case for gyms across the country. I have been more than thankful for the NSC in the wintertime, just having a well ventilated place to walk/run not to mention place to be proud of to cheer on the home team! The sports centre is new, its membership will grow, it takes time for people to change habits, new alumni will continue their memberships as they can afford it, people will change gyms. I for one think PG, UNBC and the North needed this facility in order to attract events and grow.

"In the meantime we can go back to gravel roads, outdoor toilets, and get our water from the rivers. What do we need infrastructure for when we can have an indoor facility to play soccer."

Give me a break. Your postings are getting increasingly dramatic as time goes on. As I said earlier our growing programs were having a hell of a time finding facilities and now they have them. Once those Sports are back in those buildings they will be using it 3-5 days a week and paying for every hour of it. The fitness programs will take some time to grow and will probably never be busy in the summer but this facility will be used to its full potential and it has many possible add ons such as all the hookups for a collapsable driving range and batting cages. The possibilities of that building are incredibly vast and I stand by the belief that it was a great addition to PG. To call ALL of my arguments petty is just being willfully ignorant.

I am wondering what they will do with Charles Jago sport center, if they close the university. Instead of cutting all those trees and building it, they should have a free shuttle to the facilities between Ospika and foothills at a much lower cost and extended those and saved the operating money.

I was just reading PG citizen's article on this Friday:

"While UNBC has a balanced budget for 2006-07, it is not sustainable and that the growth in operating revenue would not be sufficient to cover normal inflation in salary and non-salary costs."

This 2007 report prepared under Cozzetto is a critique of financial mess in UNBC and now Jago is trusted by the board to clean that mess.

Are they going to release the whole UNBC report (by Leading by Design Inc.) to the public? I won't be surprised to see a lot of overlap between this 2007 report and the 2003 collegility report which was shelved.

Unfortunately UNBC board and BC government failed to make sure that UNBC administration follow up the recommendations of the 2003 report and 4 years have wasted now.

"Any of them. (soccer, basketball, racketball, handball. I hear soon to be Volleyball. Pick one.)"

I was never a fan of watching sports .... could not see the purpose in it. I participated in sports -
at HS, track and field (800 yards and 120 yards hurdles),
at University - water polo, swimming (400 metre)
non-competitive - tennis, squash, badminton, skiing.

Those were never popular sports to watch for anyone anyway.

There is nothing wrong with the main basketball court at CNC, just not adequate room for spectators.

I am surprised there is no climbing wall at the sports centre. Perhaps the popularity of that has worn off.

Close the University? .... that is a dream that many CNC people have but something that would not happen in our time, if ever. It would mean that the north would have to depopulate on a major scale, which also is highly unlikely to happen.

The sports centre is what I would call a "nice" facilty - it is essentially a field house. I would not call it a "great" or "outstanding" facility.

Why not?

It is cheaply constructed and will likely become a high maintenance buildng in short order. I will give it 10 years when it will start to look "tired".facility.

It is very utilitarian/spartan. There is virtually no connection, either physical or visually to the outside. It is not designed to be energy efficient. It is not what one would call these days a "smart building" at a time when that notion was already well known. In fact, when it comes to visual connection with the outside, it is almost unique on campus by not having such a connection.

But hey, some people like it, others do not. Kinda fits the pattern of everything in the world and we are not unique at all.

Owl. The North is depopulating (maybe not on a major scale) but certainly on a regular basis for the past 10 years. Every town in the Northern Interior,with a few exceptions are decreasing in population every year. Prince George itself has decreased in population by at least 5000 people in the last 10 years and there will be more to come. A large segment of our population are now senior citizens.

The single biggest problem facing UNBC aside from being bankrupt is how are they going to increase enrollments. They have stiff competition for students from Victoria, Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna, etc; They have basically depleted the supply of part time students, and with less people graduating from high school they will have less students available for University.

The future of UNBC will be resolved in the next few years, and it will be interesting to see what the solution will be.

Local radio guy. You can use the facilities 5 days per week and ;pay for them, and you wont come close to paying the heating bill on this building.

Im not against facilities for soccer, basket ball , etc; However for $33 Million dollars we could have had all these facilities and have lots of money left over. As it is we have blown the money and are harnessed with a $600,000.00 bill or more each year to run the facility.

Well don't forget the building started off as a P3, which is a fancy term for the public getting ripped off. Then when the uproar over that started it was converted into a design build situation. Too late the private interests had already made their money.

I agree lunarbase.

Time to move now if you onw any property in the community Palopu since it will soon be worthless ... once UNBC shuts down, CNC will be next, then the Hospital ... the cancer clinic of course will nbot be built ....

then the US military will discover that we have a wonderful airport and put up barracks disguised as store houses so that they can defend against an impending attack from China .....

I still haven't figured out how the North Korens will play into all this, but they may just be the pincer movement on the side of the USA to limit Chinese capacity .....

Wow - this board is bordering on comical. Do you READ what you post? It sounds like you are predicting the second coming. UNBC will not close down and neither will CNC - Get Real. Education is vital to our community and to growth in the North. Seems like some posters here have a serious hate on for post secondary in our community, did you get kicked out for having bad grades or something?
Get over it.