City eyes Sportsplex fees for school groups

City council is looking at potentially charging school groups to use the Brandon Community Sportsplex.

The issue surfaced when council approved the new schedule for recreation, transit and service fees, with some rates rising as much as eight per cent, in a 10-1 vote at Monday’s council meeting.

The vote came after two amendments were defeated — both of them designed to increase revenue from the Sportsplex.

Coun. Jason Splett (Ward 8) proposed an amendment that would have seen Brandon School Division schools and sports teams start being charged the 80 per cent discounted rate for rental of the Sportsplex rink, pool and track during daytime hours. The schools and related teams are currently charged nothing for the rentals.

While council voted down the amendment in a close vote, it also asked for a report from administration in order to revisit the topic.

The regular rates for the Sportsplex arena starting Jan. 1 will be $280 per hour, while hourly rentals for the entire pool will jump to $215 per hour and the track will climb to $83 an hour. The arena is also scheduled to jump to $300 per hour on Sept. 1, 2026.

The fee schedule does not specify that schools can use the Sportsplex for free, but the city was simply not billing for the use, Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) said.

Splett — who was the lone vote against approving the new fee schedule — said the city is charged a reduced rate when renting a school gymnasium, but it doesn’t receive any money when it covers the cost of utilities and staff to manage facilities when schools or teams are using the Sportsplex.

“It would be nice to recoup some of those costs,” Splett said.

Berry said the city just fixed the Sportsplex arena. To have a hockey team come in and pay nothing “is ridiculous.”

“They should be paying their fair share — youth rate — like everybody else,” Berry said.

Berry said he doesn’t know why the issue hasn’t been brought to council’s attention before.

“It’s gotten me quite upset,” the councillor said. “I guarantee you we would have caught it. And we’re just finding out about it now? It’s a little disturbing.

“Everybody, regardless of the team — youth, adult, whatever — should be paying for that ice … Nobody should get it for free.”

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) said implementing the change during the meeting would be “like a shot across the bow to trustees.”

He said Berry has a good point, but that BSD shouldn’t be “blindsided” by a council decision.

“I think we can have a conversation with them about this, and get to the bottom of it,” Desjarlais said.

City manager Dave Wardrop said administration can follow up with the school division and come back to council with recommendations about potential “implications and ramifications.”

“Certainly, we can make an amendment to the fee schedule at some point in the coming year as well,” Wardrop said.

The report from administration will come back by council’s regular meeting on Jan. 19.

Berry said time was of the essence to prevent the issue from dragging on for too long.

Before Splett’s amendment was proposed, Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) put forward his own amendment to raise fees for the Sportsplex higher than specified in the new schedule. The increase would have made the fees similar to rinks in the Keystone Centre and in the J&G Homes Arena just outside the city.

Before the increase in arena rates set for Jan. 1, rates had not gone up since the facility closed for repairs in March 2023.

Todd Burton, the city’s general manager of operations, said the city raising its rates at the Sportsplex too much all at the same time would be “too high of an impact for user groups.”

Luebke’s motion was defeated in another close vote.

» alambert@brandonsun.com