Feds pledge $1M for operations at new Coronation Park sports facility

The Alberta Velodrome Association is getting more than $1 million from the federal government for the newly opened cycling and triathlon centre.

Ottawa is giving a new Edmonton indoor triathlon training centre a funding boost.

The federal government pledged $1 million on Friday to support the Alberta Velodrome Association, which operates the cycling and triathlon centre inside the Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre.

Eleanor Olszewski, the federal minister of emergency management and community resilience and minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, announced the federal funding at the multipurpose facility’s grand opening.

“This is really economic development rooted in community development, and it’s nation-building at a local level,” Olszewski said during speeches.

Edmonton city council approved the $153-million facility in 2021, with construction beginning a year later. Plans to build it were first unveiled in 2007 but were put on hold in 2014 for four years before city council approved funding to complete the project’s design.

The Coronation Park facility is the first purpose-built year-round indoor triathlon competition and training complex in North America. It has a global facility designation that will allow it to host national and international cycling events.

The centre fully opened on Tuesday and houses the velodrome, the renovated Peter Hemingway Aquatic Centre and a 333-metre running track.

It also includes fitness and training studios, a bouldering wall, multi-purpose courts and rooms, a spin studio, an indoor playground and a child-minding space.

Mayor Andrew Knack said the facility designation from the Union Cycliste Internationale will allow the city to host more events.

“Being internationally recognized for this space means we will be able to attract athletes from across the world, participants and visitors from across the world, who come to watch these athletes perform,” Knack told reporters.

“We are already well known across the world for hosting sporting events. This just adds to what we’re already doing.”