City of Brandon Parks & Recreation Services is advising that the Sportsplex Arena ice plant will not be operational for the Summer 2023 and Fall 2023/Winter 2024 hockey and skating seasons.
In a media release late last week, the City said, “the Sportsplex Arena was closed on March 2nd due to safety concerns with the ammonia ice plant. Since that time, Administration has worked with Safety and Health, and Contractors to perform an assessment of the plant. They identified deficiencies and proposed repairs that would be required to safely operate the plant.
A planned recreation needs assessment and conceptual design for the Sportsplex Arena will be taking place throughout the summer and fall months. The assessment will determine whether community need is for a renewed ice plant and arena, or an alternate redevelopment, such as indoor turf and sport court.
A bid opportunity for repairs and replacements of the ice plant has recently closed, and Administration now has a better understanding of the cost and timeline for these repairs. Initially, it was anticipated that the repairs would be completed by the end of August. However, a further deficiency in the ice plant has been identified and, as such, the date for the completion of repairs has been delayed. At best, repairs would be completed in January 2024, and would carry a significant cost.
In addition, the RFP for the recreation needs assessment and conceptual design for the Sportsplex Arena has recently closed and has been awarded. Phase 1 of the assessment includes research, community and stakeholder engagement as well as costing which will determine the direction of future development. Phase 1 is set to be completed in September 2023. In Phase 2, consultants will complete conceptual design and further costing analysis.
Due to the lengthy timeline for completing ice plant repairs, and the conflicting needs assessment timeline, it was concluded that we will postpone repairs to the ice plant until at least September 2023 when phase 1 of the needs assessment has been completed. At that time, we will re-evaluate the business case for repairing the current ice plant taking into consideration the outcome of the needs assessment (fully new ice plant, or alternate recreation amenity).”
