A disappointing winter has turned into a frustrating spring for the Orillia Girls Hockey Association.
Orillia Mayor Don McIsaac recently turned down a request from the girls' hockey organization to refund some of its ice time fees related to its annual tournament that was substantially downsized due to persistent equipment issues at Rotary Place.
Last fall, the arena faced an uncertain future after heat exchanger issues, as well as a Legionella outbreak linked to its cooling tower, shuttered its ice pads from October through late December.
Girls hockey president Les Blackwell said the issues were difficult for arena users. Ultimately, he said, the issues led to the loss of 31 teams from their popular mid-January Orillia Hawks Girls Tournament, which resulted in a revenue loss of more $40,000 for the organization.
In March, Blackwell sent a letter to the city asking the municipality to refund $13,290 in facility rental fees, a request the city rejected in a recent letter.
It was not the answer he had hoped for. Blackwll said in December, with uncertainty hanging like a black cloud on the horizon, he and the association board made the decision to cancel several divisions in the tournament, which was set to host over 80 girls hockey teams from across the province.
“Because so many teams are coming from out of town, obviously most of them … got hotels,” Blackwell told OrilliaMatters. “We need to give people enough time so that they can cancel their hotels without a penalty and so they can try and find another tournament to get into.
“In early December, we decided 'OK, we're going to cut all of the divisions that we don't have teams in.'”
On Dec. 7, city council approved a $1.9 million fix for Rotary Place, with the goal of getting an interim cooling system operational as soon as possible.
By the time Blackwell learned the arena would be operational, numerous teams had already cancelled, he explained.
“By this time, it's a week later, and I can't just email all these teams and say, ‘Oh, sorry, you know, we're back on again,'” he said. “Most of them, almost all those hotel rooms had been cancelled, and they weren't going to be able to get them back, so basically we learned from the city just too late that there was going to be any ice available.”
Blackwell said by the time he found out the ice pads would be up and running, it was already past the four-week window the city allows to negate ice time charges for hockey tournaments.
“By the time I found out that we had the ice, it was less than a month before the tournament was going to start, and … I didn't ask at the time because, honestly … all of a sudden I found myself doing all of the work all over again on building a schedule,” he said.
“The chaos that our club was thrust into because of these decisions about Rotary just … afforded me no luxury to go to the city and ask for that at the time. I was just completely underwater trying to manage rebuilding the tournament.”
Blackwell wrote a letter seeking a refund for the ice time in March. In his response to the organization, McIsaac cited the fact the organization did not reach out in time, or immediately after the tournament, in a recent letter.
"When conferring with staff, I understand that the Orillia Girls Hockey Association did not engage staff with a request to reduce ice time associated with the Hawks Tournament during the tournament or immediately after,” McIsaac wrote.
“The city acknowledges the community organizations had with the unpredictability of the reopening of Rotary Place which is why the city worked in such an expedient manner to solve the ice issues,” McIsaac wrote.
“Because the group had ample time to cancel ice within the allotted acceptable time associated with the tournament, the city cannot accommodate Orillia Girls Hockey Association’s request for financial support.”
Blackwell, however, said the city does not appreciate the “full picture” of trying to plan the tournament.
“This is just before Christmas, everyone's quite busy,” he said. “I spent my whole Christmas rebuilding this tournament. I don't think they realize that; I think they looked at it and said, you know, we sent this letter out (about the rink reopening in) December.”
The loss of revenue is significant for girls hockey, Blackwell said.
“The fees that parents pay (for) hockey doesn't come close to paying the total cost of what it costs to run the organization,” he said. “We need to run these tournaments to pay for extra things like equipment and clinics and all these things.”
Blackwell said he does not expect the city to cover the entire loss of revenue caused by Rotary Place issues, just the ice rental fees, and he hopes to see the city change its mind.
