There's a renewed effort to establish a domed turf sport facility in the Town of Cochrane.

At last night's committee-of-the-whole meeting, town council heard a presentation from Scott Ansell, who is director of soccer operations for minor soccer (recently rebranded as the Cochrane Wolves FC) and is involved with The Sanctuary Project.

He says in the last 18 months, minor soccer has witnessed a change in leadership and direction in the delivery model at every stage and age group to follow Canada Soccer's model of fun, safe, accessible, and inclusive programming for everyone.

"As an organization, we're extremely proud of how far we've come in the last 18 months," he told council.

They currently have 1,200 players registered and that number rises to 1,500 registrants when you include those playing in both indoor and outdoor seasons.

He says in that time they have gone from one full-time and two part-time staff to four full-time staff and four part-time with over 50 years of combined professional experience.

"After seeing the continued exponential growth of our organization in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, we are confident now that there is a realistic possibility that the Town of Cochrane could have a facility like an air dome."

He used the dome of the Scottish Club in Edmonton as a case study.

While praising the SLS Centre for what it has provided for the community over the years, he says it's simply no longer able to accommodate the high demand for indoor turf.

"It's an amazing facility that has provided an excellent multi-sport space over the years, and we're fortunate to have it here in Cochrane. Unfortunately, we, like many other sports, have outgrown the facility and the facility doesn't support soccer in terms of the surface."

Based upon their five-year projections, he says they anticipate 750 to 1,000 people will be participating in indoor soccer.

"To support the family needs in Cochrane, we need greater facility space. We currently see hundreds of families in Cochrane that are leaving here to head into Calgary to participate in Calgary-based sports clubs. We feel that we're in a place right now as a town with the level of the growth and the level of sports growth that we can now maybe sustain having a dome here."

A dome was explored in 2014. Since then the town's population has grown by more than 14,000 people. 

The Sanctuary Dome group has started reaching out to other potential users and has worked with Sport4Life Cochrane to conduct a survey of other sports groups, although they haven't approached the town's parks and recreation committee at this point.

Town councillor Tara McFadden, who chairs the parks and rec committee, says they commonly hear projections of growth by sports groups and the need for more facilities. She and her committee have been advocating for more facilities to accommodate sports groups, and have been pushing for the need for the Horse Creek Sports Park to move forward sooner than later.

"It's certainly a focus we need to bear down on a bit more, start delivering and meeting those needs, but keeping that balance we need to be a little more deliberate about it."

The preliminary cost of establishing a dome is roughly $3.8 million, excluding the cost of serviced land.

Securing that land is key to the project and sights are set on the future Horse Creek Sports Park.

Ansell said they would be active in fundraising and seeking out grants for the project.

"We want to be firmly part of getting there and supporting it. We want to work with you and any other partners to drive this forward and bring this home."

Council expressed interest in receiving more information on its potential. Stacey Loe, executive director for protective and community services, says they will be completing some research and bringing it back to council.