City continues partnership with Swift Current Broncos

The City of Swift Current has signed a new fiveyear agreement with the Swift Current Broncos Hockey Club for the use of the facilities at the Innovation Credit Union iPlex.

Councillors approved the new agreement during a regular council meeting on July 27, which took place via video conference.

Council members expressed their happiness with the agreement and spoke about the positive relationship that exists between the City and the Broncos.

“I just like to commend the City and the Broncos for continuing to work together and build on the strong relationship that's been developed the last few years,” Councillor Pat Friesen said. “I know our community certainly appreciates having the Broncos and they're great for the city. So thanks to everyone for their hard work and for the continued working together.”

The details of the new agreement were worked out after City administration had several meetings with Broncos staff and board members. The City’s solicitor was involved and also made recommendations that were incorporated in the agreement.

City General Manager of Community Services Jim Jones felt the relationship with the Broncos is really good. He and Nathan MacDonald, the Broncos director of business operations, have been able to continue a positive relationship that developed in the past between the two parties.

“I think it's a very fair agreement between the City and the Broncos and one that I know administration and council are very pleased to continue with,” Jones said during an online media briefing after the council meeting. “The Broncos are a big part of the city of Swift Current.”

The parties had to take some time to work out the details of this new agreement, because it incorporates details from other agreements into a single document.

“By doing that, both sides had to do their due diligence to make sure that what we were putting into the report was something that could be accepted by both sides,” he said.

These details from separate documents, which are now part of the new agreement, include the arrangements for the occupation and maintenance of private suites, occupied suite ticketing, responsibility of use of private suites, and other housekeeping items related to practices and games, signage, ice rentals, cancellation policies, utilities, rental spaces, insurance, storage, dressing room protocols and cleaning specifications.

Some of the terms and conditions in the new agreement have been changed. Jones highlighted the operation of private suites as one of the more noticeable changes that took some time to work out.

“We would like to do more events in the iPlex, whether it be concerts or other stuff,” he said. “We've been very aggressive in trying to bring major events to the city of Swift Current and we're going to continue to do that.”

The City therefore wanted to have an arrangement to use these suites during other events, when the Broncos is not renting the iPlex.

“It was a partnership between the Broncos and the City of Swift Current to start with, but the Broncos had built part of those suites on their own,” he said. “So it took a little bit of juggling back and forth, but we ended up coming to where we both agreed on what we could do and so I think that part of it was the most difficult, and the one that took us the most time to do.”

The agreement includes a reference to the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic might have on the scheduling of games during the 2020/21 season.

“I think at the end of the day we were very cognizant of COVID and their new season coming up,” he said. “So we all took that as a responsibility that we needed to be on the same page to be able to operate the arena or to be able to re-rent the arena if there's any Bronco time that couldn't be used.”

The agreement specifies that the Broncos will inform the City as soon as possible of any changes, rescheduling or cancellations of ice-times. The City will then try to make the ice available for other activities. According to Jones the City will be sympathetic to any changes to the start of the Broncos season.

“We've actually worked out some agreements where, if they have to play in an empty arena similar to what they're doing in baseball and hockey right now on the NHL level, that we would be able to provide them with a rental of the facility that would be less than what they were charging if there's a full crowd, but still realistic for the City to get some revenue based out of the arena as well,” he said. “COVID has thrown a curve ball into a lot of events, and the Broncos are one of them. The City is there and we're hopeful that we would be able to stickhandle through any agreement that comes and we wish them the best and we hope that they're back playing hockey in September.”