‘SURVIVAL MODE’
For second time in three years, local company has lost its usual home for summer hockey camps
Canadian Hockey Enterprises is in “survival mode,” says one of its managers, and for the second time in three years has lost its usual home for summer hockey camps.
The local company has been in business for 33 years running destination hockey tournaments and summer camps across North America.
The largest of its hockey camps is run at the Evinrude Centre, but repairs to the facility’s roof this summer mean the city’s ice pads in July and August will be located at the Kinsmen Civic Centre.
CHE signed a long-term agreement with the city when the Evinrude Centre opened to be its main tenant in the summer.
In 2019, it was also bumped to the Kinsmen centre when the city closed the Memorial Centre for floor repairs and moved the Peterborough Lakers and lacrosse to the Evinrude Centre.
It’s another obstacle for CHE to overcome after cancelling 60 of 61 hockey tournaments since the March 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. Tournaments make up 75 per cent of its annual revenue. It cancelled most of its summer camps except for a modified one at the Evinrude Centre in 2020. It was able to accommodate 900 players, down from its usual 1,200 to 1,300 but the revenue was a godsend, manager Chad Cavanagh said.
The company has laid off four of its eight full-time staff since March.
While grateful to have ice this summer and understanding it is not the only business affected by the pandemic, Cavanagh said the situation highlights the city’s shortage of suitable recreational facilities and lack of planning by the city to address those needs.
It’s frustrating since it was known eight years ago that Northcrest Arena, which closed permanently last April, needed to be replaced.
Eight years later and it looks like 2022 is the earliest shovels might go in the ground on a new twin pad at Morrow Park.
“It just shows the need for a new facility more than ever,” Cavanagh said.
“Eight years from the start of a need for this new facility we still have nothing. It’s very sad for me being a big part of the sporting and hockey community. It’s very disappointing.”
Cavanagh said things had to be made do at the Kinsmen centre in 2019 but the pandemic poses further challenges. The eight dressing rooms weren’t enough two years ago so several makeshift rooms were made.
Now, with social distancing required, it’s an even greater challenge. There are also timeouts for required COVID cleaning between sessions, meaning less ice-time is available each day.
“It’s tough to social distance in these dressing rooms so there’s a whole new play to factor in,” he said.
The one advantage to the Kinsmen, he said, is having an outdoor field that can be used next to the arena. “We’ll get the ball diamonds, the soccer fields and the hill to train,” he said.
Cavanagh said arena staff and management bend over backwards to be as accommodating as they can and that is appreciated. At the same time, operating at the Kinsmen is not ideal, especially in trying times.
“We’re just trying to survive right now,” he said. “I know everybody else is, too. We need to make sure we can still sell camps and this isn’t helping.”
The silver lining, he said, is he believes there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
“We have been lucky to hang in there and we are hoping we are through the worst part of it and we are going to start climbing back into the game. We should be able to get some U.S. tournaments going in May and June, which is positive. Hopefully, when we get to September and our youth tournaments start going, we are back in the game,” Cavanagh said.