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City looking into annual extension of Art Hauser season

Mar 20, 2013 | 6:21 AM

Prince Albert is looking into the possibility of extending the Art Hauser Centre (AHC) season – but it wants user groups to commit to bookings if the city’s largest arena is to remain open to the end of April each year.

The triple-A A&W Bears team asked the city to approve its use of the arena to host a spring camp April 13 and 14 in the event the Prince Albert Raiders don’t make it past the first round. Once the Raiders’ season ends, so does ice time at the AHC.

But at Monday evening’s executive committee meeting, the discussion about keeping the rink open for the Bears turned into a wider discussion about an annual extension of the AHC’s season. The executive committee asked administration to go back to user groups and tell them they will find out the cost of operating the rink in the spring.

Mayor Greg Dionne suggested the city advertises to user groups that it wants the rink to be used. “And next year, we’re going to start advertising right now, and if we have enough bookings, council will consider leaving the rink open until April 30, 2014.”

Two months before that decision is made, “we’ll see how many commitments [are made]. Because we have the Bears doing a camp, well maybe the Mintos will do a spring camp. Maybe the double As will do a spring camp,” he said.

“How can you make any plans when you don’t know where the ice is?”

The mayor then suggested the city advertises the extended AHC season with the proviso that availability is subject to change if the Raiders makes the playoffs.

“A city our size, I can’t see why we can’t have our big rink open until the end of April. And I think if we work at it and start advertising that this year to all our users that next year we’re open that they’ll surprise us…”

And because the city lacks ‘spring ice,’ it’s losing that business to arenas outside of the city that keep their rinks operational until the end of April, Coun. Ted Zurakowski pointed out.

“User groups have been frustrated with the city, because the city is not willing to commit to spring ice. But yet, I’ve gotten phone calls. User groups have certainly reached out and said ‘look, we’re interested in spring ice,’” he said after the meeting.

He said when he goes to arenas, members of the user groups approach him to discuss the situation. “The skating club has been asking for spring ice for years, certainly the [Prince Albert] Mintos would make themselves available to run their camps into the playoffs, there’s three-on-three hockey that goes on at Buckland, so there are a lot of user groups that would be interested in spring ice in the city.”

The Prince Albert Skating Club, for example, pays the arena in Buckland more than $3,000 to use the ice, he said during the meeting. He cautioned the committee that if council chooses to extend the AHC season this year, the arena may be empty more often than it is booked because user groups have built relationships with Buckland and other arena operators.

The lack of spring ice in Prince Albert is also driving families to travel to Saskatoon and other municipalities to use the ice at open arenas, he said. “If it’s affordable, and if we get the real costs, this is what it costs, let’s keep those families here, and let’s keep that spring ice in PA.”

Even the Mintos at one point, he said, had to travel outside of the city to practice when ice wasn’t available for the team during its playoff run. “Now the Bears, thankfully, they’re going to do well in the playoffs and they’re asking for ice.”

Zurakowski announced he plans to make a motion next week to commit to advertising that the AHC will be open in the spring for the next four years.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames