Soccer players in Thunder Bay, Ont., have been waiting years for indoor facility. Now some train in a garage

With indoor soccer space in Thunder Bay at a premium, one local man found a unique, but less-than-ideal, way to get his kids, and some of their fellow players, some winter training time this winter.

Space to play indoor turf options in Thunder Bay has been lacking since the collapse of the city's Sports Dome, located on the CLE grounds, in a 2016 winter storm.

And while city council has considered constructing a permanent, all-season turf-sports facility — recent estimates put the cost of that facility at about $44 million — that project has stalled.

"The last few years have been rather difficult," said Richard Bosch, who has two 16-year-old children who have been playing soccer since they were three. "We've had to be as resilient and ingenious as possible."

Bosch said the problem was made worse with the COVID-19 pandemic, as that meant school gymnasiums were inaccessible. And while there was some space available for a time in a gym at Lakehead University's Bora Laskin building, that has since been renovated and is no longer usable by indoor soccer players.

"I have a very generous landlord in the community who had a garage," Bosch said. "I phoned him up, explained our situation and we had access to his garage."

"Not the ideal environment for playing any sport whatsoever, but when you have no options, that's what you take," he said. "We had five kids in there, about a 20 foot by 30 foot space, concrete floor, a couple of sheared-off metal pins on the floor that we had to put cones on so the kids didn't step on them or get injured, but it allowed them to get in and get some extra training."

The space was used for about two months, in the evenings, as renovation work was taking place during the day, Bosch said.

"The silver lining is four of the five kids that were training there were on the team that won the provincial indoor soccer championship," he said.

But the garage won't be available in the future, and while Bosch did search for another usable space, nothing has come up.

Bosch, who spoke to CBC News while he was visiting Toronto on Friday, said the lack of space is prompting some young players to look at leaving Thunder Bay.

"There are several kids who are currently ... down here, and they're trying out for our teams in the Greater Toronto area," he said. "They have facilities all over the place and we don't have any."

"Once you come into into a place where you see all the extra opportunities, it's going to be difficult for them to want to come back."

The lack of room for indoor soccer in Thunder Bay is a problem that Michael Veneziale, president of Soccer Northwest Ontario, is familiar with.