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Two ice arenas planned |
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Written by Gerald Gauthier
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Friday, 03 July 2009 |
Detailed design planning is underway for a $26-million twin arena facility in West Lethbridge.
The City of Lethbridge is reviewing design proposals for a 62,000-square-foot centre with two adjoining NHL-sized ice surfaces to serve as a convenient hub for tournaments and other skating competitions. Two potential sites have been identified, but city officials are remaining tight-lipped about specific locations while land negotiations are underway.
“Our highest priority is to get it in the right spot,” said Kathy Hopkins, director of community services, adding a site is to be chosen by October.
“There was a lot of interest in the design process. The selection process will take place over the next 10 days,” she told The Herald on Friday.
The selected design could come before city council for approval as early as mid-July.
Construction is expected to begin in 2011 and be complete the following year. Under the city’s current Capital Improvement Plan, the price tag for the building would be funded by $15.8 million in provincial grants with the $10.5-million balance being paid by the city, mainly through internal borrowing. Any land purchase costs would be extra.
The trend in other communities in recent years has been toward building multi-surface ice centres which are better suited to hosting and attracting regional, provincial and national hockey tournaments and skating competitions. The new facility is to include combined seating for 750 as well as multiple change rooms and space for food and beverage services.
Representatives from the local minor hockey, figure skating and ringette communities are to be consulted through the design process, she said.
“It’s re-prioritizing all of the ice so all the people are in the right arenas,” she said.
Lethbridge currently has five indoor arenas. The city hasn’t seen a new arena since 1983 when the Nicholas Sheran arena was built.
That facility was ruled out as a possible site for the addition of an adjoining arena because the new ice surface would have consumed most of the available parking space and reduced the seating capacity in the existing arena.
The two new ice surfaces are expected to address an acute shortage of available ice which in recent years has increasingly forced local teams to find ice in outlying communities to host home games.
Lethbridge has fallen behind the provincial average in terms of ice surfaces per 1,000 citizens, Hopkins said.
Right now, Lethbridge has approximately one ice surface per 15,700 people while the provincial average is one surface per 13,000 people. According to figures in the CIP, the addition of two new ice surfaces would bring the ratio to one ice surface per 13,500 people by the time the city’s population reaches 95,000 in about 2020.
“This brings us back into line with the provincial norm,” she said.
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