Location chosen for Lloydminster arena project

“The sooner we can get into the grant application process, with as complete an application as we can [manage], that can result in success in receiving grant money,” Aalbers said. “Without it, we are in a very difficult financial position, which is why we’ll examine all possibilities before we turn to the taxpayers.”

“We don’t have the money in the bank right now to build the facility, so we need to engage the community, help them understand how we’re going pay for it, what we’re looking for, and that we’re open to sponsorship.”

That will come in large-scale community engagement in the coming months. Aalbers said they’ve already done some work with users, as well as learning about how to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions and discussing with governments where things are right now.

“Answering what kind of questions the public has, which we’ve started to do, [is] going to be very important,” he said.

The new arena is slated to open by the fall of 2025.

Much needed replacement

This new event arena will take on the services provided by the Centennial Civic Centre, which has served as the home for all important hockey action in the Border City since 1967. Since being ruled near the end of life in 2019, the city has been actively looking at options to replace the facility.

The Centennial Civic Centre, which seats around 1,700 people, was deemed near end-of-life in 2019. (Facebook/Centennial Civic Centre)

While Aalbers said that the arena served Lloydminster well, the City needs a new arena. Several elements are improved, such as being south of the train tracks and closer to Highway 16, but the building inspection report on several facilities brought the most important reason for urgency.

“The safety of our users of the Civic Centre is paramount,” Aalbers said. “If I didn’t have the engineering reports that we had, it would be a different story, but we’ve got to be realistic and address issues when we have them.”

He added that this opportunity represents a transformational development for Lloydminster. The current facility proposal includes plans for a community arena as well, along with the potential for six ball diamonds, commercial business space, and future development.

Later this year, the City is developing a stormwater pond on the site to be integrated into the design, which could potentially incorporate a trail system.

Concept Design. (City of Lloydminster)

Nailing the design

Taking into consideration of other Western Canadian arenas and the needs of the community, the city is looking at a seating capacity in the event arena of 2,000-2,500. This would put the Lloydminster Bobcats amongst a handful of junior teams in the prairies with an arena capacity of more than 2,000 people.

Media and Digital Communications Coordinator Eric Healey said the number comes from early discussion from user groups.

“As we go through the design phase, there is the potential to go larger,” he said. “A lot of that will be ironed out within the engagement phase for the design.”

Two other locations that were considered included:

North Site: north of 57 Street, south of 62 Street and east of the LloydEx grounds
West Site: west of 75 Avenue, north of the rail line and south of 67 Avenue

More information on the City’s facilities assessment in 2019 is available at yourvoicelloyd.ca/CFAR.

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josh.ryan@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports

by Josh Ryan

Location chosen for Lloydminster arena project

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