Final buzzer at Michener Arena

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This article was published 17/03/2015 (4070 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Transcona’s Roland Michener Arena may be counting down its final minutes before the buzzer blows on its 44-year run as a community hub. But, once the ice is long gone, the Mich will live on in the hearts of area residents for years to come.

“I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid,” recalled Kory Scoran, who grew up on nearby Newman Avenue East. “I took power skating there as a kid, and just playing all my games there.”

After getting his start at the Roland Michener Arena, located at 1121 Wabasha St., Scoran went on to play junior hockey for the Melfort Mustangs in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. After a successful stint there, he played NCAA hockey for Lake Superior State University, followed by four seasons with the Idaho Steelheads of the East Coast Hockey League. While playing in Boise, Idaho, Scoran met his wife.

Today, after a couple seasons playing pro in Europe and Wichita, Kans., Scoran calls Boise home. Retired from pro hockey, he now runs Idaho Hockey World operations, where he’s “trying to help grow the sport” in Boise.

“These kids out here don’t get the opportunities growing up to play hockey that we did,” he told The Herald.

“It makes me appreciate the opportunities I had in Transcona. Michener was a huge part of my experience.”

Transcona Roland Michener Arena was officially opened by the late governor-general Michener himself on Nov. 17, 1971. The rink has played a central role in Transcona’s social life ever since.

“I am going to miss the familiarity of Roland Michener,” Jen Davison said. “It brings back many family and childhood memories.”

Davison, a longtime Transcona resident, said she and her brother first learned to skate in the old Michener rink.

“It was the nicest, warmest rink to teach in as well as be a spectator in,” said Ashley Gobeil, who taught in the Learn to Skate program from 1998 to 2004. Now Gobeil’s daughters keep bringing her back to the rink, as they learned to skate and fell in love with ringette. For her, and so many others, it is a special place in Transcona.

“It’s been a gathering spot from learning to skate to hockey games to watching others play,” said Russ Wyatt, Transcona’s city councillor. “It’s definitely served an important role in the community.”

While Wyatt is one of many who feel an emotional attachment to the old Michener rink, he is quick to point out that the new sheet of ice at East End Arena will be more than able to accommodate the on-ice programming residents have come to expect from Michener.

“All the programming is being transferred over,” Wyatt said. “East End will also expand its free-skate time to accommodate what will be missing from Michener.”

Still, some residents are concerned about traffic flow and parking at the expanded East End, as well as the community vibe of the place.

“Added ice at East End is just going to make for larger crowds and traffic flow,” Davison said. “I don’t feel it will be the same little community indoor rink feeling.”

Old photos and memorabilia were a part of the charm of the Michener, as was the dated decor, orange bench seating, and the beautiful wooden ceiling and support beams.

As Scoran said, “It’s one of those places that smells like a rink. You walk in there, you can feel the history.”

“There have been tons of people coming by,” said Rob Lyons after cleaning the  Michener ice one afternoon last week.

Lyons, a lifelong Transcona resident, also grew up skating at the Mich.

“They ask if they can take bits and pieces of it home. I have to tell them, ‘Sorry.’”
While it has proven impossible to preserve every aspect of the aging arena, there is some good news for local history buffs.

“The Transcona Historical Museum will work in co-operation with new East End Arena expansion,” Wyatt said. “We’re hoping that a lot of the memorabilia will be on display in the museum or transferred and mounted in new facility. We’d like to have a wall looking at the history of Roland Michener Arena, to keep that alive.”

Following the City of Winnipeg’s 2013 decision to close the Michener Arena, the land was rezoned, through public community committee, to residential multi-family.

“Ultimately, (the land will be) redeveloped,” Wyatt said, explaining that the revenue from redevelopment will go back into the $5.5-million Transcona Pool Spray Park project next door.
“Those funds will be going into the community.”

In the meantime, local residents have a few more weeks to visit the old rink before the Transcona Roland Michener Arena closes its doors for good (“at the end of the month, or early April,” according to Wyatt), and quietly awaits its demolition.

So lace up those skates and take one last rip around the open ice at the Mich before the gates are closed for keeps.

sheldon.birnie@canstarnews.com

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