A pair of community organizations with a longstanding history of providing differing, yet substantial, benefits on the Semiahmoo Peninsula are at odds over control over the Rotary Fieldhouse.
City of Surrey officials have confirmed that a request for proposals for a building operator commencing in 2026 will be issued for the 14600 Rotary Way structure "in the coming weeks," and that the "future agreement will address current facility use needs in the park."
The move follows the end of a 25-year lease to the South Surrey Fieldhouse Society, which has operated and maintained the field house since it was built in South Surrey Athletic Park. That lease expired at the end of 2024, and a one-year extension to Dec. 31, 2025 was offered, reads a statement from the city's parks department.
Most of the Peninsula's Rotary clubs use the field house for meetings and events; it's the future of access to its storage space that has become a point of contention.
White Rock Rotary officials say a change of hands would seriously impact their largest fundraiser – and thereby, many community initiatives – while officials with Coastal FC contend their club, serving some 4,000 soccer players, desperately needs the space for equipment.
Shared with a number of groups, including Coastal, White Rock Rotary has long used the bulk of the storage space to receive, sort and store tens of thousands of tomes that are donated for its book sales. Proceeds of those sales fund initiatives including the Feed My City program that launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide free meals to anyone who was struggling.
Club officials say the field house was "purpose-built" for its current use and that lost access to the storage space would spell "disaster" for them. Its potential loss has already prompted a decision to end – at least temporarily – the Feed My City program.
"The need continues, but the funding may not," club president Anthony Manning explained. "That's the difficult decision we had to make."
Coastal FC executive director Chris Murphy said the issue for them is that growth in the athletic park and the needs of its users have changed significantly in the years since the field house was built, but that space to support that growth and those needs, including auxiliary structures, has not kept up.
Coastal currently has use of some of the field-house storage area, but Murphy said the club, which operates 10 soccer fields at the park, is "desperate" for more. He noted that right now, the bulk of its gear is kept in a half-dozen unheated and not-weather-proof seacans that are scattered about the site.
"We've been working for a long time with really insufficient support space and so, knowing that the lease was coming up at the end of 2024, we did express interest," Murphy said Monday (May 13).
He noted the decision to approach the city about it followed unsuccessful efforts to reach a shared deal with Rotary. Both groups "need that space and more," he said.
Fieldhouse society chair Bob Livesey – a longtime Rotarian – says Rotary believes a 50/50 split of the space and a combined effort to secure funding for either an addition to the new building or a new soccer facility would be "a win/win for all groups."
Murphy said he believes the city is trying to find a solution that will meet everybody's needs and that he would "support in two seconds flat" seeing the space cloned. With new space unlikely to materialize anytime soon, however, he said it makes the most sense now for the soccer club to have priority over the storage area that does exist.
"The Rotary makes a compelling case for what their needs (for the storage area) are. The difference, in our view, is that what they do in the space could – while inconvenient on their end – we believe that it could be supported elsewhere, whereas we cannot," he said.
"We’re not trying to displace anyone, but we have serious needs for the space that the current field house offers.
"Unfortunately, it's put two longstanding service groups in a little bit of a friction point."
The uncertainty of it all has "created major anxiety" for both groups, Murphy added.
Manning said Rotarians want to "find a solution that works for everybody and preserves the status quo."
"We're not looking to kick Coastal out, but we also don't want to leave the field house," he said. "It's good for all of us."
"Rotary supports soccer for kids 100 per cent," Livesey added.
For now, White Rock Rotary is focusing on ending the Feed My City program on a high note, aiming to raise at least $5,000 for Sources Food Bank at a fundraiser set for 5-10 p.m. May 31 at the White Rock Elks Hall (1469 George St.). The Rotary and Elks clubs have been partnering on Feed My City since late 2023.
The evening – dubbed Hottest Night of the Year – is to feature live music by the Charles Johnson Experience and a buffet dinner.
Tickets, $50, are available by e-transfer to lindawrrchar@gmail.com. Manning noted the full ticket price is tax-deductible. Those wanting a tax receipt should provide their full name and address with the purchase.
For more information, email rotarywhiterock@gmail.com
