It’s not the weather that’s being questioned.
Two Red Deer peewee minor football teams faced each other in a semifinal match on Sunday — in Lacombe.
This game was scheduled for Saturday at Great Chief Park, which makes sense since it’s two Red Deer teams.
Furthermore, Hunting Hills and Lindsay Thurber teams were also slated to play at Great Chief on Saturday.
We thought it worked out well in league play as it resulted in a matchup between Red Deer teams and therefore there was to be no travel to another town’s hometown field.
However, all of a sudden on Friday afternoon we were “informed” (last minute news so it’s hard to call it that — more like blindsided) that our games could not occur at Great Chief.
No more football was to occur at Great Chief regardless of the fact that playoff games were slated for there months ago
Like I said, it was a bonus that it panned out to be Red Deer versus Red Deer, or so we thought.
The fact that the powers-that-be/the City of Red Deer or Great Chief Park personnel decided to shut down the use of our home city/Red Deer’s main football field without any forewarning and consultation, in the midst of playoffs, is ludicrous.
How come $750 000 can be spent on (some very short-lived) bike lanes yet football games that draw more players and fans than the bike lanes can’t continue as scheduled?
If more than 24 hours notice and consideration had been given, this unexpected upset could have been handled better and we wouldn’t have been scrambling to make other arrangements.
Thank you to Lacombe for allowing and orchestrating the last-minute use of their excellent facility.
As for Red Deer/Great Chief Park, this sham is far reaching as the Red Deer high school and peewee teams play in a league, of course, that stems outside our city.
The other teams may envy us for our new curling rink facility (hopefully they allow playoff games to occur there) but when it comes to playing football, many municipalities are surely left wondering why Red Deer teams would be punted from their home field — as are we.
B.C. Campbell
Red Deer