Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

CITY FRUSTRATIONS

Kamloops Minor Hockey frustrated over lack of consultation around ice time bookings during Scotties

Oct 24, 2022 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — On February 17, 2023, the best women’s curling teams from across Canada will be in Kamloops for the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The competition will take place at the Sandman Centre, while the beer garden was going to be held at Memorial Arena. Kamloops Minor Hockey Association (KMHA) found that out just last Thursday.

“By the way, all of your ice bookings are cancelled for February and March. Yeah, it was stunning… stunning,” Riley Woodland, Director of Hockey Operations for KMHA tells CFJC Today.

KMHA is exasperated at the lack of consultation the city undertook before making the decision to effectively cancel the association’s bookings for two whole months.

“We don’t really have any details on dates,” Woodland explains. “It’s just sitting at February. I think the tournament starts on [Feb.] 17th and we understand that if they’re taking ice out, it takes time.”

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CFJC reached out to Parks and Recreation officials with the City of Kamloops, who declined to comment. However, the City did suggest they planned to reach out to Curling Canada to try and find a solution to the booking cancellations.

“We’ve heard rumours of potential solutions,” Woodhouse says. ”To be honest, we haven’t been consulted in any way on what could work for us.”

Therein lies the frustration for Kamloops Minor Hockey. The organization has been renting city facilities for years and thought they had a solid relationship with staff when it came to bookings. As it stands, they’re losing out on around 10 weeks’ worth of bookings at Memorial Arena.

“We’ve set our schedules, we have playoffs booked,” Woodland says. “We thought we were all set for the season, then we got a notification, that if we got in July or August, it’s something we could work with. We want to be flexible, we want to work with people, but we’re not really being set up for success.”

For now, Kamloops Minor Hockey will have to wait and see if the city is able to find an alternative location for the beer garden and entertainment venue for the Tournament of Hearts, or if they’ll be out two months’ worth of ice.