Rugby sa国际传媒 received a most welcome shot in the arm on Friday afternoon thanks to an injection of up to $3 million from the federal government to assist with the construction of a 19,000-square-foot high performance training centre in Langford.
John Duncan, member of Parliament for Vancouver Island North, made the announcement, along with Langford Mayor Stew Young and Rugby sa国际传媒 officials.
The training centre 鈥� which will also be used by the community 鈥� will include a 7,000-square-foot gym; dressing rooms; recovery and stretching rooms; kitchen/dining and lounge area; meeting and office rooms; six one-bedroom studio units; a therapy clinic and the sa国际传媒 Rugby Hall of Fame.
The government will provide up to $3 million, the city of Langford is responsible for $2.5 million and Rugby sa国际传媒 has committed $899,956 toward the project, which is expected to break ground in the next six months.
Rugby sa国际传媒 will have to come up with the remainder for the facility to be situated near the existing centre of excellence near Westhills Stadium. Total cost of the project is $7,840,000.
鈥淭his whole community has been so amazing for Rugby sa国际传媒,鈥� said the organization鈥檚 chief executive officer, Graham Brown. 鈥淭his centre, what it will do for them [the players], is enable them to perform even better than they do now.
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure I could say four years ago that we could win double gold [at the recent Pan Am Games] if it weren鈥檛 for what Langford was able to do for us.鈥�
Rugby sa国际传媒 will take advantage of the centre in the mornings and the gym is expected to be open to the community from noon to 10 p.m.
鈥淚鈥檝e got to tell you, from the start when Graham Brown brought the rugby opportunity, our community embraced it, got behind it, built the facility here for them,鈥� said Young. 鈥淭hey moved their national operations here to the city of Langford and I can tell you what a difference it has made to our community and to Rugby sa国际传媒 in general.鈥�
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
