CBU not eying return to AUS hockey

But university does plan to make better use of Canada Games Complex

A return to Atlantic University Sport hockey does not appear to be in the cards for Cape Breton University.

“As soon as we get a donor for 10 years who’s providing us with a million dollars a year,” Dingwall said in a recent interview, when asked if there are any plans to ice an AUS men’s hockey team. There hasn’t been a men’s team at the university since 1995-96.

There has been some recent nostalgia about hockey at CBU with the national championshipwinning 197778 University College of Cape Breton Capers team being inducted into the Dingwall university’s hall of fame.

Dingwall said it takes about two years to start up a team and it costs upwards of $850,000 annually to run a program.

“It’s a substantial amount of money and the potential for generating kinds of revenue on those things is just not there,” Dingwall said. “It’s a very expensive operation.”

That doesn’t mean there won’t be any hockey played on campus, he added, noting there are possibilities involving women’s hockey, hosting tournaments or hockey schools or intramurals.

In recent years, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality has approved motions to operate the Canada Games Complex, paying for its ice time. The consultant hired for the CBRM recreation master plan had recommended that the CBRM should ensure the arena is commissioned until the repurposing of the Centennial Arena and challenges facing the Whitney Pier Arena are addressed.

“It’s here to stay,” Dingwall said, in terms of CBU’s future commitment to the Canada Games Complex.

He said the complex, which opened in 1987, is governed by its own charter and no president “can rid itself of what they committed to. There would be a gargantuan legal challenge if they attempted to do that.”

The current arrangement with the CBRM also doesn’t restrict CBU from doing its own marketing to host events at the Canada Games Complex, sell additional ice time or undertake other initiatives to make it more of a 12-month operation.

“This is an asset, and I don’t want to see that asset underutilized, it needs to be utilized 12 months a year and it’s not and it’s up to us to try to change that,” Dingwall. “In the past, it was looked upon as just a hockey arena, it’s so much more than a hockey arena and I think you’re going to see some changes there.”