Niverville set to open new multi-use recreation centre

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This article was published 01/07/2021 (1746 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NIVERVILLE — Niverville’s Community Resource and Recreation Centre still needs a few finishing touches, but construction of the $19.5-million multi-use facility has reached a stage where it can actually be used for the purpose it was built.

On Monday, a spacious, gleaming fieldhouse will host volleyball and dodgeball camps for the first time. By Aug. 15, ice will be installed in the adjacent arena with summer hockey camps expected to get underway.

Opening the CRRC, a 99,000-square-foot facility on the town’s northwestern edge, has been a long time coming for supporters such as local developer Ray Dowse.

“It’s great for the community,” said Dowse as the centre opened its doors to media and public tour groups Thursday morning. “I’ve been here my whole life. I love hockey. In minor hockey, I’ve been a coach throughout.

“The impact that this will have on minor hockey and kids coming up — (it’s) something to aspire to. The impact that the older kids have on younger kids… and there’s economic impact that it will have on the community as well. It’s a nonprofit organization and the ownership group understands that this isn’t for a monetary return personally. It’s for the community.”

The arena will serve as the home of Niverville’s yet-unnamed MJHL franchise, which is slated to begin play with the 2022-23 season. The Niverville Arena and Niverville Curling Club will continue to operate nearby.

Local realtor Clarence Braun, spokesperson for the 34-member investor group including Dowse that put up $10,000 each to pay the league’s $150,000 franchise fee, said the new arena-fieldhouse complex should have a unifying effect on the entire community.

The franchise will employ a nonprofit structure, based on the model successfully executed by the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons. Coincidentally, Steinbach is awaiting final approval to build a $42.5-million arena and events centre to replace the aging T.G. Smith Centre.

“I think nonprofit is the only way to go to actually galvanize the community,” said Braun. “There’s no suspicion about what we’re doing here. We’re putting this in because we care about Niverville and and want to create an opportunity. The facilities agreement is being worked on right now — three of the directors are part of that conversation with the town — and then we expect to have our board of directors nailed down within the next three or four days.”

Niverville High School, which is next door, has a direct link to the complex and will have access to the facilities while Providence University College, based in nearby Otterburne, has completed an agreement to use the fieldhouse for its intercollegiate sports program rather than build something new on campus.

Braun said there will be grandstand seating for 750 fans on the west side of the arena. Space for an additional 400 spectators on the east side, likely a mix of standing and restaurant-style seating, is still to be determined.

In 2015, discussions with the MJHL and then commissioner Kim Davis forced Niverville’s planners to upsize their original expectations.

“He said, ‘We won’t go anywhere if you don’t have 1,000 seats,” said Braun. ‘Ultimately, you may not fill it up during the season but you’re gonna have to have it for playoff hockey.’ So they went back to the drawing board and expanded the building.”

Braun also confirmed his group had preliminary discussions with Salman Safdar and Usman Tahir about purchasing the OCN Blizzard and moving the franchise south. But talks with Safdar and Tahir, who purchased the Blizzard in May of 2019, didn’t go very far.

“I think it’s fair to say that if they had been able to come in here with us taking the minority share and their having a majority share, they were interested in that,” said Braun. “… We were not (initially) aware of what they wanted. Had we known they had to be the majority shareholder situation, we wouldn’t have done it. We wouldn’t even have done the call. But those calls reveal things and that was one thing they wanted — 51 (per cent) for sure. And we wanted nonprofit.”

While hockey and the MJHL will be a big part of the facility’s future, the town’s chief administrative officer, Eric King, said the overall plan is more ambitious.

Niverville will be hosting the 2022 Manitoba Winter Games and with a new 75-room hotel going up nearby, has its eye on hosting future provincial men’s and women’s curling championships.

“The goal of council has never been to just create — we just don’t want to be about us — it’s how do we create our place as a regional hub,” said King.

King wouldn’t rule out further facility development for the growing town of about 6,000.

“I don’t think this is the end,” said King. “And so, if we are too busy and we make money — sports facilities are notorious for not making money — we’re trying to, do a model where it is a break-even facility or close to, or a small loss. And so if that continues like we plan, then once this mortgage is paid off, we go on to building another fieldhouse or wherever the demand takes us. We have enough demand right now that for this fall that we have two hockey rinks that are full.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14