Cranbrook city council has decided to stop seeking special event opportunities inside Western Finance Place to make ice available to local user groups.
With the Memorial and Kinsmen arenas out of commission for the time being, ice time is hard to come by.
MORE: Memorial Arena arches showing advanced signs of structural distress (Oct. 17, 2023)
Not scheduling new events will help with the ice shortage.
However, the city will be going ahead with already-planned events.
This includes the Glorious Sons concert, the winter Farmer’s Market in November, and ‘A Christmas Rock Story’ in early December.
The hit the city would have taken for cancelling the events would have been approximately $126,000.
“We do have several hundred of our youth playing hockey, but we need to remember that Western Financial Place is a multi-purpose venue, and we, as a community, must be committed to that,” says Mayor Wayne Price.
“All sides have to be willing to compromise to make this work, and it will be challenging for both Council and staff to make it work.”
More information on a repair timeline for the Memorial Arena arches should be available by the next council meeting.