Ira Jacobs, who has overseen significant change at the Faculty since he became dean last year, said the project will create new facilities to address the dearth of spaces for physical activity and sport while also generating sports and health research.

Situated on Devonshire St. opposite Varsity Stadium, the Goldring Centre is the final phase in the Varsity Centre complex renewal program. The new centre will house international-level volleyball and basketball courts, various sports research laboratories, strength and fitness facilities overlooking the stadium, and an expanded sports medicine clinic.

Goldring will be the only university centre in Ontario dedicated to sports science. Research at the centre will include sport nutrition, developing training strategies that affect physiological systems, kinetics, and biomechanics (the laws of mechanics applied to the athletic body).

While such research might seem highly specialized, President David Naylor sees it as having a wide application. “The research into the field of sports science is still limited. There’s huge potential because it relates more broadly to wellness. With an aging population, you want people to be active as long as they live,” he said.

“Even though this is a centre for high-performance, it will increase the amount of space for the general population, ” said Townsend Benard, co-chair of the Council of Athletics and Recreation, which is responsible for overall athletics and recreation policy. “It will allow high-performance to move out of the Athletic Centre and move to this building, completely opening up the AC for the recreational user.” Specifically, recreational users and intramural programs will not have to work around the Varsity teams’ schedules for access to the AC’s track, courts, or fitness facilities.

Benard said that the current programming arrangement at the AC will likely transfer to Goldring, and time not reserved for high-performance sports will be set aside for drop-in programs. Benard, President Naylor and Jacobs all emphasized that the Centre will help to alleviate constraints on the intramural program by allowing it to expand, decreasing or eliminating waiting lists.

Although the groundbreaking ceremony is behind us, there are still details to be sorted out. The estimated cost of Goldring is $58 million. But after a $22.5 million gift from the Province and $28.5 million already given from private donations, there remains a $7 million funding gap.

At the groundbreaking event on Tuesday, City Councillor Adam Vaughn told the newspaper that the project is “a welcome addition to the neighbourhood,” but it is still awaiting the City’s final approval. There are no significant issues with the building, but Vaughn noted that its design has raised questions about how it fits into the surrounding historical heritage. Neither the funding gap nor the pending City approval is expected to jeopardize the project.