Big turnout for Sportsplex open house

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This article was published 17/08/2023 (890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If Wednesday’s open house on the future of the Sportsplex had been a referendum, one of the proposed renovation options would have won in a landslide.

Placed in a horseshoe shape on the concrete floor of the ice arena, visitors could walk by poster boards outlining the four different proposals for the space and place stickers to rate how strongly they agreed or disagreed with them.

City staff as well as representatives from MNP, Verne Reimer Architecture and HTFC — currently conducting a needs assessment about the future of the venue — were on hand to answer questions and present information gathered so far.

Five months after the rink had to shut down because of safety concerns, those attending the open house made it clear with their stickers that they most strongly agreed with repairing or replacing the ice plant and reopening Brandon’s only city-owned indoor skating surface.

While there were proponents of the other options — replacing the rink with a hard court, indoor turf or a hybrid of both — the stickers placed on the other boards were predominantly in the “strongly disagree” category.

It was very clear how Joanne Soder felt about the situation. She carried a small sign on a stick that read “Keep the ice!!” as she checked out the information on hand.

“I have four grandchildren, and there’s nowhere for them to go for public skating,” she said. “All the rest of the rinks seem to really concentrate on hockey.”

She said without the Sportsplex, her grandchildren would need to go to Shilo, Carberry, Kemnay or Forrest to find a suitable indoor skating surface.

Another attendee with concerns relating to their grandchildren was Bruce Stephens.

“I’m really concerned that we’re going to lose the only rink that the city looks after,” he said. “My granddaughter played in a Monday night informal recreational hockey league that’s been going for 26 years, and now they have no place to play.”

Visiting the open house with his wife Marta and son Eric, Wilman Cuadros said his family came to support the idea of an indoor soccer turf.

“As immigrants, we love soccer,” Cuadros said. “In Brandon, there are no facilities for the winter. We need to go to Winnipeg for our kids to play in tournaments.”

Just over halfway through the open house, city staff estimated that at least 140 people had attended the event. One staff member said they’d seen earlier in the week that the online survey relating to Sportsplex renovations had already received more than 1,300 responses.

Two city councillors at the event, Heather Karrouze (Ward 1) and Jason Splett (Ward 8), said they were impressed by the turnout.

Karrouze, whose ward includes the Sportsplex, said the turnout means the community wants to be heard and that voice will help council make their ultimate decision.

“It is for the entire community and we have to make a decision based on what is best for the entire community, but I can say in this ward and very local to the Sportsplex, there are many, many families with children who are able to take advantage of what the Sportsplex has to offer,” she said. “I think it’s important for the health and wellbeing of this neighbourhood and the whole city.”

The councillors said they’d heard fears expressed that the city was going to get rid of the arena space entirely, but that’s not the intent. Because of the age of the building, Karrouze said it was time to assess what its future might look like.

Splett said the information on display at the open house and a special council meeting earlier in the day really helped him understand that the project isn’t just about getting the arena going again but bringing the entire Sportsplex into the 2020s.

“It’ll serve the residents … for the next 50 years,” he said. “With some of these different options we’re looking at with the different rooms, the food facilities and the way this whole area looks is going to be different. It’s not just (a question) about a new ice plant or not a new ice plant.”

Ian Frank, a manager from MNP, said it was “fantastic” to see the passion displayed by the community at the event.

He said this process is really about finding out what Brandon needs the Sportsplex to be over the next couple of generations and to set the venue up for success.

“It makes it easier in that it provides clear direction from the folks who came out,” Frank said about the turnout. “It does also challenge us to make sure all potential user groups have been represented in our engagements.”

For those who couldn’t attend the event, some of the information presented as well as access to an online survey about the Sportsplex can be found online at brandon.ca/recreation-assessment.

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