THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Minor Hockey Association will move up in the ice allocation priority list, but officials are worried it's not high enough.
City staff on Monday officially presented a revamped ice allocation policy at both Fort William Gardens and the municipally owned satellite arenas, but still left TBMHA and the other minor hockey associations behind Junior B hockey, a concern said TBMHA president Wayne Fortes.
While only allowing for a single Junior B team – the Current River Storm – to call the city's satellite arenas home, down from two proposed under the initial policy, Fortes said they're worried they'll lose ice time blocks, which hurts their ability to stage games, hire on-ice officials and land enough volunteers.
The Storm are scheduled to play on Saturday nights, a change from the originally scheduled Fridays
Holding back-to-back-to-back games is imperative to their operating model, Fortes said during a deputation to council, two weeks after council delayed approving the initial policy in order to consult user groups again.
The additional consultations resulted in minor hockey being placed above adult organized and scrub hockey at Fort William Gardens, while moving minor hockey, figure skating, synchronized skating, ringette and speed skating to follow tournaments, junior hockey and municipal program, which includes public skating and sledge hockey.
Minor hockey, which makes up 56 per cent of ice use at the Gardens and satellite rinks, will still maintain the hours it needs, but might not get all of its desired days and times.
“We are the largest consumer of ice and we exclusively serve children and adolescents. We appreciate the fact that we have been moved up in the Gardens, and that should be a benefit to Northwood hockey,” Fortes said.
“But it does impact our times at the satellite arenas.”
Fortes said his organization was never fearful of the number of hours it was going to get, but the times.
“It's the times we're going to get, the days. If in the next couple of years the junior team came in said they need three dates on a Wednesday or Thursday and four dates on a Friday, they would get first ice because they're getting their schedule out earlier,” Fortes said.
“That would be 21 hours out of minor hockey during our weekday ice? Where would we get those 21 hours back? We're already maxed out on weekend ice because all the teams are either playing or practising.”
Paul Burke, the city's event services coordinator, said the goal of the revamped policy is to ensure general public access to Thunder Bay's arenas by all user groups.
Burke said the message from minor hockey organizations was delivered loud and clear, but they aren't the only user group.
“We are modifying the recommendations from the report that we had from two weeks ago. We're recommending minor hockey be moved up a few spots on the Fort William Gardens priority list and up a spot on the satellite arena priority list,” Burke said.
“We're also recommending a cap on the number of weekly hours allowed for public skating and programs, capping that at 12, and lowering the number of junior B teams allowed in the satellite arena systems to one. We had originally recommended two.”
Special events, like concerts, along with the Lakehead Thunderwolves and Thunder Bay North Stars maintain top priority at the Gardens.
Mayor Bill Mauro, while expressing sympathy for Thunder Bay Minor Hockey and its users, said it simply wasn't fair for council to make last-minute changes on Monday night.
“While I'm hearing your concerns expressed here this evening, if I was to make a change, I don't think I could actually consider what negative consequences there might be for somebody else. If we make a change here on the fly ... clearly there is an impact on a user group or more than one user group,” Mauro said.
Mark Antenucci, second vice-president at Thunder Bay Minor Hockey, said he was not surprised the revamped policy was unanimously passed by council, but added his organization will make their allocated ice time work.
