A concept design for the Sky Dome facility (photo courtesy of the Sky Volleyball Club)

By Liam Verster

Sky Dome

Local volleyball club seeks partnership with city for new facility

Mar 14, 2022 | 7:40 PM

Sky Volleyball Club is looking to partner with the City of Vernon to build a new facility and help grow the sport.

Sky Volleyball wants to have a ‘bubble’ facility, called the Sky Dome, built in Vernon.

The Sky Dome’s air-supported structure would be approximately 66,000 square feet (sq ft), with 57,200 sq ft dedicated to eight hard courts and spectator bleachers. The facility would also house a physical training space, and activity-based child care area, and modern technological features like video cameras, televisions and speaker systems.

An attached accessory building of about 6,000 sq ft to hold the lobby, change rooms, office, pro shop and more is also included in the plan.

Sky Volleyball would also like to see an outdoor beach court area with four courts, along with an outdoor gathering space built outside the facility.

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In order to build this facility, the club is looking for the city to become a partner to help with funds and land.

The project would cost approximately $4-million to build, not including the cost of the land.

“We’re not looking for a complete handout, we know this is a momentous task with a lot of work. The good news is we’ve got an excellent leadership team, an excellent membership base that are willing to come together and work on it,” said Jeremy Wilson, president of the Sky Volleyball Club, during his presentation to Vernon council Monday, March 14.

“We’re going to ask our group to be committed to the project, establish project managers, establish and develop fundraising efforts, determine facility partners, and, just overall, have a group together for the project.”

Wilson said they would like to establish a partnership similar to other local sports organizations, pointing to the pickleball group specifically.

“We know there were some items brought to the table with pickleball where there were some grants that are in play, there was even some loans in play,” said Wilson.

“Again we’re not looking for 100 per cent of the financial burden on the city. We understand ourselves that we have to do our due diligence in our efforts of putting some funding together as well.”

Wilson added that the club’s goal is to look for grants and sponsorships to cover about half the costs of building the facility. The club would finance the other half, and preliminary discussions with local credit unions have already been held.

Along with seeking financial support, the group would like to form a partnership that helps provide the land to accommodate the Sky Dome facility.

“We know that the current discussions underway with the Kin Race Track re-development, we’d like to be considered for that space,” said Wilson.

“Obviously utilities being brought to the area, we would take care of it from there into the facility.”

Wilson also noted that if space could not be found at Kin Race Track then they would like to work with the city to find an appropriate space for the facility, though he did note that with the former race track being converted into a sporting hub, it would be a natural fit for the Sky Dome.

The group also wants the city to transfer the Vernon Volleyball Recreation to the Sky Volleyball Club, allowing the club to have full domain over the volleyball leagues in Vernon.

Wilson added that the “sky’s the limit” in terms of economic impact this facility would have for the city.

“Having this facility would be the only one of its kind in the Okanagan, and it’s going to open up a pile of opportunity: a number of indoor club tournaments, beach tournaments, high school tournaments, high-performance training,” Wilson explained.

“All in all, 7,000 athletes a year, 1,000 coaches, 10,000 parents, and $1.2-million in community revenue.”

The facility would allocate 15 per cent of it’s operations time to recreational use, with the majority of the time geared towards members’ play and tournaments.

During the presentation, it was noted that volleyball is the fifth most participated sport globally and is growing in Vernon, with Sky Volleyball Club being the second largest volleyball club in all of B.C.

The club offers youth and adult programming, and it was noted that 80 per cent of the youth athletes are female, helping advance gender equality in sport.

It was noted that building this facility would allow for adult and youth volleyball programs to be brought together into one site.

The proposed project has been supported by Volleyball B.C., Volleyball Canada, Sport and Culture Society of the North Okanagan, and Canadian Women and Sport.

City council received the presentation for information, saying they will consider the Sky Dome when they look at the Kin Race Track Athletic Park proposal next chance they get.