September 18, 2007

One of the largest buildings ever built in Prince George will beofficially opened at the end of this week, kicking off a weekend fullof activities that will mark the opening of the Charles Jago NorthernSport Centre.

The official opening ceremony will take place at 10am in the NSCGymnasium, featuring Government of BC officials, city and universityrepresentatives, and local athletes. Local residents are welcome toattend the event; parking on campus will be limited so free shuttlebuses will be available starting at 8:30am. The buses will beaccessible on 18th Avenue, at the north end of the CN Centre parkinglot. Buses will be leaving every 15 minutes and making return tripsuntil 2pm.

Other events will be held throughout the weekend to celebrate the opening of the NSC:

• Basketball games on Saturday night between the current UNBC men’s andwomen’s teams and alumni teams. The games will be the first ever in theNSC gymnasium.
• First annual Alumni Homecoming featuring a pub night on Friday, apre-game party on Saturday afternoon (preceding the basketball games),and a breakfast Sunday morning.
• The Breakfast of Champions Saturday morning in the Bentley Centre featuring local athletes and past/present Olympians.
• The UNBC men’s and women’s soccer teams will play their first homegames as members of the BC Colleges Athletic Association. Games will beheld at the North Cariboo fields on 15th Avenue on Saturday and Sundayafternoons.
• Throughout the weekend, there will be tours of the new facility, sporttesting demonstrations presented by PacificSport, and the ActNow Roadto Health exhibits and displays.

“We were inspired by the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games andwanted to bring that kind of excitement and fanfare to the opening ofthis spectacular new building,” says Bill Lynch, Chair of the committeein charge of the activities throughout the weekend. “We want to inviteeveryone to the opening ceremony on Friday morning and to the variousother events planned for the weekend. It will be an exciting time forUNBC, the community, and for our entire region.”

The full schedule of events is available at www.northernsportcentre.ca

Contact:

Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations, UNBC - 250.960.5622