Winnipeg, MB - Transcona Nationals Football Club players and fans have more to cheer about tonight as the first ever night game will be played at the field thanks to new field lighting.
Transcona Councillor Russ Wyatt announced the funding for the lighting before the start of the club’s Friday night game.
“As a project initiated by the City with the Nationals, this builds on the great 101 year tradition of this volunteer football organization,” said Councillor Wyatt.
The project, estimated at $220,000, received funding of $100,000 from Government Canada’s Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund (CIIF), $100,000 from Phase Two of the Building Communities Initiative II (BCI II) funding agreement between the Manitoba government and City of Winnipeg and an additional $20,000 from the City of Winnipeg’s Land Dedication Reserve Fund.
The new football field lighting included concrete piles, six light posts, electrical and engineering. The lighting will allow for enhanced opportunity for not only the Transcona Nationals Football Club, and for Minor and Midget league teams across the city to access the field for night games and practices past dusk.
The addition of lighting at the Transcona field marks the fifth community football field in Winnipeg equipped with night lighting.
“The Transcona Nationals Football Club wishes to formally acknowledge and thank all three levels of Government for their contributions to our new field lights at the Transcona Nationals Football Club,” said Cori Knapp, Past President, Transcona Nationals Football Club. “Through their support we will not only be better able to develop Minor and Midget football within the Transcona community but also the City of Winnipeg and several rural communities. We look forward to a bright future dedicated to the youth of our community.”
This is a continuation of the City of Winnipeg’s commitment to the Transcona Nationals Football Club youth volunteer program. In the last six years, the City has renewed the Transcona Nationals Clubhouse, expanded their football fields with the development of the terminator football field for younger football players, renewed and rebuilt their main field, and installed an underground irrigation system in both the main and terminator fields (youth field). This has amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money into this much needed recreation infrastructure.