Build it and they will come. Rebuild it and they will return.

Doug Hitch, special director with the Yukon Soccer Association (YSA), is hoping this is the case when the new turf at the Coca-Cola Fieldhouse in the Canada Games Centre is completed.

"What really will make me happy is to see some of the people come back who had to leave because the old floor had hurt them and they knew they couldn't come back to it. I'm hoping they'll come back. And I think that'll be a big sign of success,” Hitch said.

The under-padding of the old turf was a thin layer of felt. The new under-padding is significantly thicker, with more give, the secondary level is similar to thatch and the top layer is synthetic grass.

The new turf is much more forgiving than the previous surface, which felt like carpet to slide on, Hitch said.

"We're very happy to be able to get it fixed and we can extend the careers of a lot of people playing on that floor.

"The new floor is possibly the best product we could get under the circumstances.

This product is safer in every way. The obvious one is that it doesn't cause abrasions to the same degree as the other one did …so if you slide on it there's much less chance you'll get an open wound and get a Staph infection. That was a the big issue before.”

The new turf is scheduled for completion Thursday and in working order for the weekend, Canada Games Centre manager Art Manhire said.

"By the weekend it should be up and available for use.”

The total cost for the project came to $142,240, $125,998.95 for supplies and installation, $11,550 for a carpet scrubber (both provided by Advantage Sport) and $4,699.88 for two heavy duty carpet roll racks on wheels (provided by Jacob's Industries).

The City of Whitehorse committed $85,000 for the new turf in its 2011 budget. The YSA pitched in $2,500, the Whitehorse Minor Soccer Association added $2,000, Whitehorse Coed Soccer contributed $1,000 and Whitehorse Rapids Over-35 Mens Soccer gave $500.

The YSA also received $38,248 from the Community Development Fund (CDF) over the summer. The CDF also included $13,000 denied by Yukon Lotteries, since

the Games Centre is city-run.

Hitch said the new surface should not affect registration costs for users since the expense is a capital cost, not an operating cost.

The YSA also received letters of support from Special Olympics Yukon and the 2012 Arctic Winter Games, which will feature soccer on the new turf in March, Hitch noted.

"Last night, I was out there on the field … I got to walk on it, and it just felt so good,” Hitch said. "I can see that it's going to make a huge difference for the athletes and I think for the community as a whole. People really appreciate this.”

For Hitch, this has been a long time in the making. He was instrumental in getting the Fieldhouse, Flexihall and running track included in the original Canada Games Centre design.

When the project was nearing completion, Hitch assumed the YSA would get input on the surface of the Fieldhouse.

"But we had basically the lowest quality flooring you could imagine, even worse than what they began using in the south years ago,” he said.

"I was unhappy with the floor that came in, and the first time I saw it, I felt a sense of defeat. I've worked so hard to get that centre in, and that floor, I looked at it and thought, ‘We're going to be in big trouble with that floor.' But I couldn't convince anybody else that it was bad flooring at that time. We had to wait until the injuries had piled up. And now the injuries have piled up, and just about everybody has got a horror story to tell.”

Added Manhire: "It's crucial to make sure that we have what people are looking for, but we also have what serves everybody's purpose. We had to come up with solutions that were going to meet all those options.

"One of the reasons I really like this project is that we're working with the user groups, the soccer user groups and the field user groups, to come up with this solution, and it was one where it was a shared responsibility, which I think it was a great statement, in terms of how people see this facility and their use in this facility.”