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A private youth hockey league is trying to fight back after concerns were raised over ice time at the Brandt Centre in Regina.
Mike Reich and his Young Guns Hockey Academy have started a petition to “keep politics out of hockey” and not reverse a decision already made by the Regina Exhibition Association about ice time, according to a news release.
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Reich and his academy have worked out a deal with the association to have control over all the ice time for the coming season at the Brandt Centre that isn’t already allocated to the Regina Pats. This has frustrated some senior hockey players, who have been playing at the Brandt Centre, and left them worried they’ll only get the leftovers, or no ice time at all.
“I’m not (sure) there’ll be a whole lot of scraps,” said Steve Alport.
The Regina Exhibition Association has not responded to requests for comment.
Alport plays in a senior league at the Brandt Centre, and is part of the group of players opposing the change. He said some senior leagues have been playing at the Brandt Centre for decades – senior, in the hockey world, refers to anyone over the age of 18.
“It’s recreation, it’s exercise, but it’s a big part of our social life as well. I spend more time with the guys I play hockey with than anybody else,” explained Alport.
“It may sound like a trivial thing to people who don’t play, but it’s a big part of our lives and it’s important.”
Ice time hard to find in Regina
Ice time is incredibly difficult to find at Regina rinks, Alport said, and some senior leagues have lost their ice times at other city rinks because it’s been allocated to minor hockey.
“We don’t use a whole lot of ice,” he added. “In the city facilities, my guess is we would maybe take up five per cent of city ice.”
And for these leagues, Alport explained that once they’ve had their ice times, they would generally get the same time in each subsequent year, meaning they’ve had the same ice times for decades.
If the deal with the Young Guns goes through, that would no longer be the case.
Reich explained that his academy will have first choice of ice times, and if another team had a prime time in previous years, then they would have to move. But, he said, he’s willing to work with the teams and wants to be fair.
“In my mind, it should go to whoever’s going to be accommodating to us, as we’re going look to grow this program, and grow it by more teams, and we want to have that flexibility to add as necessary to give other options,” said Reich.
Reich’s program has two teams right now, after expanding the Hockey Super League to Regina. He also has skills programs he’s marketing to minor hockey players. Reich said he wants to grow his program to include more teams and more development classes, and is also planning tournaments and showcases.
Reich pointed out that in other city facilities, teams don’t automatically get the same ice times year after year, and said it’s been fortunate for these senior teams that they have. He also claimed that ice times haven’t always been used properly in the past.
He said what’s happened for years is just recreational hockey at the Brandt centre during prime times, calling them “beer leagues” in a news release.
“And there’s nothing wrong with that, but our kids shouldn’t have to travel outside the city to go skate in -30 C weather, or they shouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn (or) be forced to leave school early to skate either,” said Reich.
When asked why kids and his hockey academy should take precedence over the adult teams that have been playing there with the same times for years, Reich said it’s all for the kids.
“When I’m that age, if I’m sitting there as a 40-year-old man … or 50 or 60, and a youth program comes in and bumps me from my rec hockey time, I’d be glad to travel a half hour outside the city if I had to, or go to the Co-operators and play in a league that’s been in place for a lot of years, or take a different ice time, or take one or two less than I generally had and be flexible,” said Reich.
Alport and other players have taken their frustrations to Mayor Sandra Masters and City Councillor Bob Hawkins, meeting with them on Monday. Alport said they explained that they don’t want to lose their ice time to minor hockey again, and shared their opposition to a private, for-profit hockey academy being given control of all the ice time at a city facility.
Reich argued that the academy and Hockey Super League will bring tournaments, players and their families to the city, while Alport argued that not having a decent senior hockey program will be one more mark against Regina, which can struggle to attract young professionals.
Two sides to the argument
On Wednesday, Masters seemed interested in pausing the change and taking a closer look at it, and said she would be willing to bring a motion to city council to discuss it.
Masters said there are two sides to the argument.
On one hand, she noted that council directed the exhibition association to become commercially viable, and it went out and got a big cheque for this, so perhaps that’s fair. But there’s another side to the debate as well.
“I think the inherent problem in this, from my perspective, is the community benefit and kind of respecting existing relationships seems to be also an appropriate lens to look through,” said Masters.
On Wednesday, the mayor said she was waiting to see what the exhibition association’s interim board had to say about the situation – she said it hadn’t been aware of the deal.
“If we don’t need the motion because there’s been alternative measures taken, then we’re super happy with that,” said Masters.
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