City to explore potential improvements for outdoor sport venues

By Christena Lawrie, CFRC's Broadcast Journalist and Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.

Councillor Ryan Boehme brought forward a motion at Council’s Tuesday night meeting looking towards improving Kingston’s well-used outdoor sport venues. 

With unanimous support from Council, City Staff will look at best practices in comparable municipalities and opportunities for improvement in the delivery of outdoor sport venue services, including maintenance, tournament support, season length, operating hours, and asset investment.

“Our fields are used so much and some of them are in very poor condition,” Boehme stated. “You’ve got certain fields where kids are playing on dirt instead of grass.”

Councillors especially emphasized the comparison with other municipalities, both in the feedback they have received from community members and to consider moving forward.

“I get asked a lot, like, we were just in a tournament in Cobourg and, you know, why can’t Kingston be like this?” Councillor Lisa Osanic recounted.

“The whole idea of this in plain terms is to simply look at those around us, how they’re doing it, and who’s doing it better than us…” explained Boehme.

Staff will report back with findings and recommendations for improvements to the Arts, Recreation and Community Policies Committee in mid-2027.

Listen to the full story here.