Photo supplied.
The Peterborough Timbermen’s lacrosse season opens on December 9th at 2pm in the Millbrook Arena.
In what could be its last hoorah, the action continues at the old arena with soccer and lacrosse action.
Indoor soccer programs are operating for 505 members of the Maple Leaf Cavan Football Club (MLCFC), with participants from age three to seventy. Programs run every evening and much of the weekend from now until the middle of May. The adult contingent of winter players has more than doubled this season and now 100 adults have joined the league and are enjoying the action and the competition. Demand is such that the club would gladly rent more hours at the facility if they were available according to club Director Angela Penello, but they have to share with the other prime user, Peterborough’s Arena Lacrosse team, the Timbermen,
This is the fourth year the Timbermen has called the Millbrook arena home. The team is a member of the Ontario Arena Lacrosse League team (ALL), which is an amateur winter indoor Development lacrosse league. The team’s season opener is scheduled at 2pm December 9th at 2pm in Millbrook, where they will face off against the Paris River Wolves. Tickets for Timbermen games are available at the door for $10 per adult and $5 for children ages six to fourteen and children under five are free.
Photo Karen Graham.
Despite its condition, demand to rent the facility continues because of a lack of alternatives in the area. There are no indoor venues of the size required by these activities available during the winter months, and very few of them are equipped with artificial turf.
After a series of surveys and community feedback forums, it was clear that the community preferred to scrap the 72 year old facility rather than pour in significant capital expenditures to shore up its deteriorating condition and bring it into compliance with accessibility requirements to meet the January 2025 deadline. There was, however, broad support to wait until an alternative indoor facility became available before demolishing the building. The soccer club believes their program will not survive in its current scale and competitive level without an off-season indoor facility and have expressed an interest in helping fundraise to contribute to a multi-use indoor facility.
The future of this central pivotal location will be the subject of further analysis that will follow the release of the Parks and Recreation Masterplan in the New Year.
For now, the facility continues to provide a much- appreciated winter venue for users who hope that an alternative venue will become available before the doors of this well-used facility are closed for good. KG
