New rink eases local ice congestion

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This article was published 01/10/2022 (1260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The addition of a fifth ice surface in Brandon last winter has quite literally been a game changer for the local hockey community.

The J&G Homes Arena, which was built by Jared Jacobson and J&G, opened its doors last December, unveiling a state-of-the-art facility with a restaurant in one end and a massive video screen on one wall for highlights. It joined the Sportsplex, and the three rinks in the Keystone Centre — Westoba Place, Enns Brothers Arena and Flynn Arena — as the spots where hockey, ringette, figure skating and other sports can take place on ice.

Tim Lang serves as president of Hockey Brandon, the city’s largest ice consumer.

“It was definitely something that has been on people’s minds for many years,” Lang said. “The fact that it was actually built and is in operation now doesn’t even seem real to me right now because we’ve been looking for one for so long. It’s been years in the making.”

Naturally, the new ice sheet has led to a massive shift in who is using ice and when, and it also increased usage because more supply is available.

Brandon’s under-18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings moved from the Sportsplex to the new facility, with the U18 team getting its own room with a coaches office and laundry facilities. The U15 AAA boys and girls programs also headed to the new facility from their primary home at the Keystone Centre.

The two facilities that stood to lose the most from the new rink have experienced the impact differently.

Jeff Schumacher, the chief executive officer and general manager of the Keystone Centre, said they went into the season considering themselves to be in a great spot with their three rinks. Westoba Place opened in 1972, while the Enns Brothers and Flynn arenas were added in 1992 during the massive Keystone Centre expansion.

“I think it’s just been moving some times around and some organizations around,” Schumacher said, noting there is plenty of business to share in the hockey-loving city. “It hasn’t really impacted us. We’re still pretty much fully booked.”

It’s been more impactful at the Sportsplex, but it can be argued that, in a way, the new private rink actually saved the city money.

Perry Roque, the City of Brandon’s director of Parks and Recreation Services, previously managed the Sportsplex and certainly understands how it operates.

He said when the city did its recreation facilities study in 2018-19, the message they received was that more ice was needed and the city should build it. Instead, the Jacobson family did.

“That gave us the extra arena we needed in the community,” Roque said. “Since that arena has been built, the Sportsplex has seen a reduction of users. We saw that last January when people were moving from Sportsplex to J&G Arena, no different than what we saw in 1992 when the Keystone expansion happened …

“What we’re finding is we’re back-filling with user groups that maybe couldn’t get ice time, and we’re finding there are more and more groups going, ‘Why should I drive half an hour out of town when we can just drive to the North Hill for hockey practice?’ and they’re getting better ice times here.”

Roque’s point is a good one.

When ice became too scarce in Brandon, minor hockey teams have traditionally headed to rinks in nearby communities such as Wawanesa, Rivers, Shilo, Oak Lake and Virden. Lang said that’s essentially stopped.

“There isn’t that need for us to look at other avenues outside Brandon,” Lang said. “I think that’s the main thing. Hockey Brandon as an organization was fine getting ice but it was always a little touch and go, and we had teams that were driving to Wawanesa or Oak Lake or Shilo in order to have certain practices or if they wanted extra ice time.

“That’s probably where I see it the most. Now, if a coach wants to book a couple of extra practices, he has that ability in Brandon to find ice, which was impossible before.”

Two massive tournaments are held in Brandon every winter, the Tournament of Champions early in January and February and the Source For Sports AAA Hockey Challenge in April and May. Both have been hampered in the past by the lack of local ice.

Darryl Wolski runs the AAA Hockey Challenge, along with the Wendy’s Summer Hockey League for the past 30 years and the Wendy’s Winter Hockey League for 25, with around 20 teams in each. Outside of Hockey Brandon, nobody has rented more ice than he has in recent years.

Wolski was able to run the 75-team AAA Hockey Challenge entirely in Brandon this spring: In 2021, he had to schedule games 75 kilometres west of Brandon at the top-notch new facility in Virden.

“Having the extra ice sure makes our lives a lot easier, and for the people coming in, we don’t have to cram games in and start at 8 a.m., and finish at 11 p.m.,” Wolski said. “We can start at 9 a.m., and finish at 9 p.m. It’s all about ice times and telling people ‘Hey, you have a game on Saturday at 11 a.m., and then you’re going to have a 7 p.m. game’ and people love it.”

He said that also eliminates some of the dead time in between games for visiting families.

Wolski added game times are a common concern in his winter league, which plays in the evenings.

“One of the biggest complaints I get is ice times,” Wolski said. “Guys having to play a 10:15 game on a Thursday or Sunday night at the Sportsplex isn’t really sexy. It’s not appealing.

“Now moving forward with one extra ice pad in the city, between Hockey Brandon and ourselves and the other programs, that enables us to not only have more ice but better ice times.”

Wolski doesn’t get a break on the cost of ice despite the amount he rents, although he gets the first chance to book. On average, a for-profit company pays around $275 an hour, with non-profits charged around $200.

On top of that, a one-hour game costs Wolski $65 for referees.

Wolski traditionally ran his summer league at the Sportsplex, grabbing some ice at the Keystone Centre as well. When it came time for him to pick between the Sportsplex and J&G Homes Arena for this summer’s games, he said it was an obvious choice.

“The Sportsplex has been good to me and I’ve been good to them too, but realistically, it comes down to the ice price is the same, so you can drive a Cadillac or you can drive a Skoda,” Wolski said. “When people show up at the rink, it’s much more than hockey. It’s an experience.

“I can go in there and order a pizza or get a plate of nachos and get a drink and sit behind the glass and watch things. I never watched as much hockey as this summer.”

The small exodus out of the Sportsplex certainly had a side-effect: It provided opportunity for others.

The Assiniboine Community College Cougars are among the teams that stayed. Years ago, the Cougars bounced from rink to rink in the city — and even to Shilo during the 2018-19 season — because they couldn’t find enough ice at any of the facilities.

They’ve played exclusively at the Sportsplex for the past four seasons.

“I think it was way overdue,” head coach Tony Bertone said of the new rink. “There was talk of it for years and years and then it finally became official. I truly believe with women’s hockey and the way it’s growing, and the younger players and the rep teams … It’s filled a purpose for sure and made more ice available here for us and Massey.”

The Cougars had hoped to land the grand prize that came available at the Sportsplex — the former U18 dressing room, which is easily double the size of the other rooms — but instead it will become an open room that they share with the Vincent Massey high school team and others.

ACC does, however, have first rights to it for practices and games. The room is locked up with their gear inside when they have late practices on Tuesday evenings and afternoon sessions on Wednesday afternoons.

The other benefit was having additional ice times to choose from for practices.

“When the U18s moved out and the college went to the girls getting out at 2:30, we took the 3:30 ice time instead of having another 8:30 practice,” Bertone said. “We took advantage of the afternoon ice.”

While teams and leagues are settling in at the five rinks, the long-term ramifications could extend beyond just ice rentals. It may also affect what remains open in the off-season.

“It could impact when we get to the summertime conversation,” Schumacher said of the opening of the new rink. “Some years we had one rink open, other years we closed, and then COVID hit. We were trying to figure out the sweet spot, and then J&G Arena opened.

“We’ll probably make those decisions closer to summer just to make sure there’s need for it. That might be the only thing we might do.”

The other question is whether J&G Homes Arena is enough to meet a growing city’s needs. Wolski said five is probably the ideal number of ice surfaces for the time being.

“I think right now, there is probably enough ice time to go around,” Wolski said.

Lang agreed.

“I think we’re at a point where we’re very caught up and have enough capacity,” Lang said. “That might change. There are always hockey schools and people running skates during the week that will tie up ice time for sure but I think we’ve got enough ice.

“We don’t have an abundance of ice where you would see rinks sitting empty for hours at an end, but we’re at least at a point where we can serve all the Hockey Brandon teams, and CanSkate and the Brandon Blades program too.

“We’re in a lot better place than we were before.”

If there’s a secondary good news story, it’s how the market has responded to ice opening up at the Sportsplex. Roque said the prime time hours of 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. have essentially filled back in this fall, but with different groups renting the ice.

The result dovetails nicely with city planning, which means programming for less structured exercise instead of just organized sports.

“The new ice surface has opened up more opportunities for us,” Roque said. “We’re in the business of providing recreation. We don’t run the minor sports, Hockey Brandon does that and the figure skating program is (Skate Brandon). We do recreation, so we can do more sticks and pucks for kids who are going to come out and shoot a puck around the ice but aren’t in hockey.

“There are definitely some really good things happening at the Sportsplex with the change.”

There is still ice later in the evening, but that’s often filled by adults just looking to get out with a puck and stick with their friends.

For the kids who are in competitive hockey, Lang said Hockey Brandon’s U7 program runs at J&G Homes Arena, and he thinks it’s an ideal spot for new hockey families to sink roots in the game with its many amenities.

He said the appeal to youngsters is apparent as they walk into the high-tech facility for the first time and their faces light up.

“Whether you want to give credit to Jared or the Jacobson family, there weren’t a lot of people in Brandon who were stepping in to throw a new rink up,” Lang said. “I think that it was something the City of Brandon desperately needed and they stepped up and did it.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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