Arena’s future melts away with its ice
City will accept proposals from anyone looking to take facility off its hands but says it will not subsidize in any way
The ice maker is off at the Medicine Hat Arena, perhaps never to be turned back on.
The 46-year-old facility that seats 4,000 fans is scheduled to be permanently closed this summer. The city will begin next month accepting proposals from user groups or land developers to take the rink off the city’s hands.
Coun. Brian Varga, who played at the Arena as a member of the WHL Tigers in the early 1980s, said it was a tough decision but council made it based on finances.
“It is sad but the decision was made on the costs and how feasible it is to keep running it,” he said Tuesday.
Council voted in December to close the facility as budget authors sought to cut $1 million from the city’s annual operations by the end of 2018.
Councillors said the $700,000 annual operating deficit at the Arena was too great to keep it open as a community ice surface. The closure also avoids planned maintenance and upgrades totalling $2.5 million over seven years.
Hockey groups however, said the closure would hamper high performance programs that used the Ash Avenue rink as a home base since 2015, when WHL games moved to the new Canalta Centre.
Tournaments that draw in out-of-town visitors, and other user groups would also be affected.
In March, a group calling itself the Save the Arena Committee approached media in the city saying it was evaluating whether operating the facility as a tournament space and non-profit entity would be reasonable.
“We’re preparing to move forward whenever they (city administrators) are ready,” said Kris Schultz, a committee member and the general manager of Medicine Hat Minor Hockey and the Southeast Athletic Club.
He said a business plan is being developed.
The group, including several notable business people in the city, has said it wants to examine the feasibility of cutting costs and fundraising as an option to keep the rink open.
City officials have said they are not considering subsidizing operations or providing an operating grant.
Parks officials have said they provide more ice time than other Alberta cities and other local groups can be accommodated at other rinks.
Medicine Hat Minor Hockey will holds its annual general meeting tonight but Schultz said since private individuals are developing the plan, not Minor Hockey, the Arena plan likely won’t be discussed.
The winter sports season closed on Tuesday as crews removed the ice. It will host some lacrosse and indoor sports on the slab in the spring, but after June however, the building will close.
City administrators said they will formulate a process to evaluate proposals of what to do with the building and site that occupies river front space in the North Flats community.
The land and business support office is in charge of that process that will open in May.