Terry Sawchuk Arena closed for season

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This article was published 05/09/2019 (2526 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Local skaters, ringette and hockey players may have to travel further than anticipated in order to lace up this season.

On Aug. 30, the City of Winnipeg announced that the Terry Sawchuk Arena, located at 901 Kimberly Ave., will remain closed for the duration of the 2019-20 season following the discovery of “extensive mould” throughout the building’s ceiling. The abatement and remediation effort is expected to take a significant amount of time, City officials said.

“We do not currently have the funding in place,” Glen Stefanyshen, City of Winnipeg superintendent of building and asset operation, explained. “So we have to get the funding, put out the tender, and we expect it will be 16 weeks until we can actually get started.”

According to Stefanyshen, the mould was discovered after a damaged reflective ceiling panel was removed for maintenance. After testing was done, it was found that mould was covering approximately 25 to 30 per cent of the ceiling’s surface. Stefanyshen said that the City is “erring on the side of caution” in undertaking the extensive abatement and remediation process. Exactly how the process will take place was still being determined at press time.

According to Peter de Graaf, the City’s manager of community development and recreation, the nearly 1,200 hours of allocated ice time would be redistributed shortly, ideally across the remaining 11 City-owned rinks. Youth programs would receive priority.

“We’ll look at all our options,” he said. “Our goal is to allocate within those times. There are other arenas available, if we can’t do it, at community centres for example. Last year we were at 85 per cent capacity, so we had 15 per cent extra capacity at prime time hours.”

The River East Minor Hockey Association make use of approximately half the prime ice times at the Terry Sawchuk Arena.

“It’s going to impact us, but it won’t be as big as initially feared,” said Jernej Anderlic, ice director for the REMHA. “The city is bending over backward to accommodate us.”

Anderlic explained that REMHA also books ice at the River East Arena (1410 Rothesay St.), which the City owns, along with Gateway Recreation Centre (1717 Gateway Rd.) and the East St. Paul Arena (266 Hoddinott Rd.).

“We should be able to accommodate our games at those rinks, so impact on games should be zero,” Anderlic said. “The impact will be on practice times, which will be cut down.”

To make room, and save money, Anderlic said he will be encouraging teams to share ice times once teams begin practising in October.

“These things happen,” Anderlic said. 

The River East Royal Knights of the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League are also among Terry Sawchuk Arena’s primary users. The team practises and plays home games at the rink, which is also home to its offices. 

“They couldn’t have picked a worse time to do this,” said Royal Knights general manager Barry Bonni, who has run the team for 38 years. “It’s total chaos. We’re kind of in panic mode. Why couldn’t they have done this in March?”

The Royal Knights start their exhibition schedule with a “home” game against St. Vital Victorias on Sept. 6 at River East Arena, and are expected to play the bulk of their “home” schedule and hold practices out of the Rothesay Street rink.

“At Terry Sawchuk, we’re all set up to run a proper junior hockey club,” Bonni said. “River East, they’ve been gracious enough to find room for us, but it’s… yeah. The players are disappointed. It is what it is.”

Sheldon Birnie
Managing editor

Sheldon Birnie is the managing editor of the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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