Evraz Place planning for operational changes

Evraz Place is preparing for a new normal if and when the go-ahead is given for stadiums and arenas to reopen.

The nature of those changes will largely be determined by whatever restrictions are in place when large gatherings, which are prohibited during the COVID -19 period, can be held. As it stands, gatherings are restricted to a maximum of 10 people.

That doesn’t mean the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (which oversees the operations at Evraz Place) hasn’t considered what changes are needed to make Mosaic Stadium and REAL’S other venues Covid-19-friendly when facilities can reopen.

“Our approach with the exhibition association has been, ‘Let’s build a plan in black and white and then we can measure against it,’ ” said Tim Reid, president and CEO of Evraz Place.

“We’re OK with being wrong because we can always adjust it. We’ve really taken the approach that is, ‘Let’s build a plan based on the best information that we have available.’ ” Then we can always monitor our success in relation to what we projected.”

Those changes, however, would come at a cost.

“Where our margins were based on a certain complement of staffing, cleaners and ticket takers, all that will likely change until we have a vaccine for COVID-19,” Reid said. “It may be beyond that, depending on the mindset of our customers and our guests.”

Evraz Place has already introduced ticketless scanning at some of its venues and that could be expanded for most events.

Handling concession and merchandise sales via contactless scanning also has to be addressed, especially if restrictions on patrons maintaining the proper physical distance remain in place.

There is also the issue of getting patrons through the concessions during peak periods, such as halftime, with only the scanning of credit cards. And what to do with the cleaning of washrooms and other areas where fans gather?

Maintaining social distancing within 33,000-seat Mosaic Stadium and its other facilities also raises challenges for Evraz Place. Guidelines call for two metres of physical distance between people, a separation that isn’t possible in the event of a capacity crowd, given the current seating configurations of the facilities.

Reid estimates that social distancing would be mean 30 to 35 per cent fewer seats available, which could also lead to a 30-per-cent drop in revenues for Evraz Place.

“The challenge is most of the leagues that we represent or the events that we have really need bums in seats and people buying hotdogs and popcorn,” Reid said. “Otherwise, the business model just doesn’t work very well.”

There are the accompanying challenges of maintaining the facilities with an increased emphasis on deep-cleaning and disinfecting locker-rooms. That will require more time, more staff and more work to reach whatever standards are set in response to the coronavirus.

“One of the examples we’ve been talking about is minor hockey for kids going into the fall and how do you shut down a dressing room so that you can deep-clean a dressing room after every practice?” Reid said. “That’s going to transition to football and to hockey games. People are going to expect that we’re doing a more thorough deep-clean. That means we have to take some spaces off-line and that comes with a cost, but it also comes with a service level that will be more challenging.

“We just need better monitoring than we’ve ever had before. Obviously, that all changes if we can find a vaccine and the mindsets of the ticket buyers or the guests feel more comfortable with being in close proximity.”