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Stinger Dome ribbon cutting ceremony 

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At a ceremony on March 16, Concordia was proud to cut the ribbon to officially open the Stinger Dome, located on the Loyola Campus.

Among those taking part in the ceremony were President Judith Woodsworth, Vice-President Services Michael Di Grappa and cabinet chair for the recreation and athletics campaign, Richard W. Pound (S BA 63).

Since opening its doors for general use in January, the facility has been buzzing with activity. Many teams, including the baseball team have been carrying out practices in the facility while others, such as women’s hockey, have been using it for physical conditioning.

As well, members of the community have been renting it out for their own use including Rugby Quebec and the N.D.G., Lakeshore, and Outremont soccer clubs.

“We’ve had people come in to play Ultimate, flag football, soccer, rugby… it’s been really exciting for students as well as the greater Montreal community,” said Director of Recreation and Athletics Katie Sheahan.

Sheahan says this first season of operation is serving as an opportunity to test the facility and find new ways to maximize the usage of the 126m x 55m artificial turf field.

“It’s extremely versatile,” said Sheahan. “We can divide the playing surface into four fields with the use of mesh curtains, allowing us to easily accommodate four distinct activities at one time.”

Everything has run remarkably smoothly thus far, said Sheahan, and she and the dome crew are discovering new ways to make day-to-day operations even smoother.

“For example, if heavy equipment needs to be moved into place as one group leaves and another is expecting to play on the field, our operations need to work like clockwork.”

The inflated dome will come down April 30 and will be reinstalled at the end of October.

For rental information, see Athletic's site.