Corner Brook Civic Centre user groups looking at options to salvage season

Corner Brook Minor Hockey Association president Rocky Bromley would love to see the workers at the Corner Brook Civic Centre and the city reach an agreement that works for both sides.

The city locked out the workers, members of CUPE Local 4386, on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after conciliation talks failed to reach an agreement on a new contract.

The lockout means all operations at the centre have been suspended, and that’s having an impact on the user groups and tenants at the centre and in the annex.

Bromley told The Telegram on Thursday, Oct. 22, that the association is devastated that the labour situation at the centre has resulted in a disruption of the minor hockey program.

“Our primary concern is to get the kids on the ice,” he said.

The minor hockey program has about 400 kids registered from ages four to 18.

For many, he said, the program provides both the opportunity to play hockey as well as enjoy the social aspect of the sport.

For others, the program means a lot more.

“For some kids, this is a break from the real world,” said Bromley.

He said the association aims to offer a safe space, free of judgment, for all its players.

The minor hockey association was notified by the city on Oct. 15 that all on-ice events at the centre were being suspended because of a potential strike action by the staff.

The city also began the process of shutting down the ice plant and removing the ice from the two rinks.

That led the association to announce on Friday, Oct. 16, that all its programming was being cancelled until further notice.

It came at a bad time for the association, which was just into week three of its season.

Bromley said the association was supposed to hold its rep team tryouts that weekend, and all the work that went into it is now for nothing.

After the workers were locked out on Tuesday, the entire building was shut down.

Bromley said the association executive held an emergency meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 21, to explore its options.

Some other local associations have contacted them to offer “bits and pieces” of ice time, and they are trying to see when and where they can make that work.

Travel to Deer Lake or Stephenville would work, he said, but going to Rocky Harbour or Port aux Basques would be more difficult.

Bromley said the association is also considering going ahead with selecting its travel/rep teams without holding an on-ice tryout.

It’s not ideal, he added, but if they can figure out a path forward, they can start to reach out to other associations and go there to play against their teams.

The house league program would be a little trickier to manage as there are more teams in it.

So far, the action is not affecting the association financially, but that could change.

Bromley said the league books its ice time and is then billed at the end of the month, so there is nothing for the city to refund.

It has collected player fees, but he said they are not planning to issue refunds just yet as the association could still be able to salvage the season.

If the lockout ends quickly and the ice can be put back on the rinks, Bromley said they could still get in a full 22-week season, but if it drags on, they may have to issue refunds.

It could take up to five days per rink surface to put the ice back on — that’s if there are no issues with restarting the ice plant.

So, Bromley said, if the situation is not resolved in the next four to five days, the association will have to make alternate plans.

The Corner Brook Ladies’ Volleyball League has also been affected by the lockout, but league organizer Finton Gaudette said they are in a better situation than minor hockey, as they have more options when it comes to reaching out to other gyms to find playing time.

The league plays at the Corner Brook Civic Centre Annex on Sundays. There are 24 teams, with close to 300 people involved, including referees, coaches and players.

The league held its opening weekend tournament at the end of September and got in one week of games from the first round of league play at the annex before the closure.

That accounts for 18 matches out of a possible 324 scheduled matches over two rounds.

“We’re reaching out to other facilities and trying to alleviate some of the pressure of trying to make up all of those matches,” Gaudette said on Thursday afternoon.

Like the minor hockey, the league doesn’t pay upfront for its bookings.

“What’s happening is we’re renting elsewhere. We’re spending the money elsewhere. So, in terms of the annex and the civic centre that’s a loss of revenue that they would have,” said Gaudette.

While the league does have options when it comes to other places to play, there are still challenges.

The Grenfell gymnasium in the Marina Redmond Centre, which is also run by the city, only has two courts.

The league would need to run the two courts for a little over nine hours just to complete a regular Sunday schedule.

Gaudette said even on the best of days now, the gym is only available for about 7.5 hours, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The league normally runs from 3:30 to 9:30 p.m., and Gaudette said people like the time because it still gives them an opportunity to attend church or hockey with their kids or other family activities earlier in the day.

“What’s happening now is that we’ve got 12 matches scheduled for this Sunday, and it had to be a combination of what teams were available to play at those particular times because it’s a complete time shift for us,” he said.

That’s creating a lot of extra work for Gaudette, who runs the league as a volunteer. He’s not only got to source out other venues but then check with the teams to see who can play.

As the lockout continues, Gaudette said they’ll turn to renting schools and the Grenfell gym, and he’s also heard from the annex in Deer Lake that they can accommodate some games.

“So, what we’ll do is try to do our best to get our first round completed,” he said.

Round one ends around Jan. 11, 2027, and he’s hoping to salvage that, but says if the lockout continues, he doesn’t see round two happening. The second round is set to run until the beginning of April, right before the provincial senior championships.

“If it gets to the point where we’re struggling to keep up with matches, then we’re only going to get enough games in to do one round or have enough time to get one round in, which would be 162 matches, we’d probably consider it a win if we can manage to get one round in,” he said.

“I’ve got teams paid up until the end of round one, so it’s my goal to make things a lot easier and, rather than reimbursing teams partly, I would at least get them enough matches to complete round one and then we can have a look at what’s salvageable.

“If the annex happens to open up instead of getting a complete second round in, we might have to play a couple of tournaments just to give people some matches.”

So far, Gaudette said no teams have dropped out because of the uncertainty.

“I think people are understanding overall both sides of the story and we’re just waiting for it to play out.”