Evraz Place able to reopen some of its facilities

The action is picking up at Evraz Place as the facility opens up more and more of its features.

Except for dressing rooms at the hockey rinks, that is.

“Just about as soon as we can bring an arena online right now, it’s being filled with users,” Tim Reid, the president and CEO of Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL), said on Monday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

“The rotation is a little bit different and it’s bizarre seeing everybody get dressed (outside of dressing rooms, which remain closed due to COVID-19).

“I drove up the other day and there was a goaltender getting dressed in the back of his pickup truck. I thought it was the mid-’80s again, before we had dressing rooms.”

REAL was forced to cancel a number of events at Evraz Place this year due to the pandemic, from the Queen City Ex to Canada’s Farm Show. The soccer and hockey facilities on the site also have been closed, as has Mosaic Stadium.

But restrictions put in place by the provincial government to stop the spread of the coronavirus slowly are being lifted, meaning many of the facilities at Evraz Place are reopening.

“We’re still very limited as an indoor facility to how many people we can have in the building,” Reid said. “Physical distancing is still key, but if you wanted to go and have a hockey practice with your close friends, you can go and have a pickup game as of this week.”

The shutdown has had a significant financial impact on Evraz Place, but it also has allowed REAL employees to do some work that wouldn’t have been possible if the site was crowded with people.

Reid said new lines have been painted in the parking lot and new LED lights have been installed around the site.

“We’ve taken advantage of that time, but we’ve also tried to realize that fiscally we don’t have the means because we don’t have the revenue we once did,” he said.

“We’re doing the work where we can but we’re also trying to do our best to conserve budget because we don’t know how long this will last.”

That said, Reid admitted REAL is trying to think of things it can do to get people back on the grounds.

Those so far have included a mini-donut day June 5 to raise funds for charity and a drive-in concert with country star Brett Kissel on June 20.

“We’ve realized that people are looking for opportunities to get together, as long as it’s not in a controlled manner,” Reid said. “We may have a couple tricks up our sleeves for the rest of the summer.”