It’s been a long time coming and the finish line is in sight for the Cenovus Energy Hub.
Media toured the new arena Tuesday (May 27) as construction moved closer to completion this summer.
Read more: Understanding the Cenovus Energy Hub
The main foyer offers an open concept, giving a bigger feel to the facility.
“This is our main foyer area, it’s quite open as you can see,” said Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers as he led media into the facility for the first time. “It’ll have lots of good viewing, some natural light, of course.”
Just outside the doors of the Hub, parking lots could accommodate almost 800 vehicles. If the city were to need more parking, they would work with local companies on shuttling people into the area. The city would also look to shuttle individuals from various parking lots around Lloyd.
Staircases lead to both rinks from the entrance, along with an elevator, getting people between the three floors.
Notable design elements for the arena include a concession being available to both rinks.
“All the services will be available to serve both rinks from one location,” said Aalbers.
Doors will be rolled up when service is available, allowing for the closure of the alcohol side if the event does not permit it.
As part of the design of the Cenovus Energy Hub, the rinks were made more accessible.
“Both are equipped for sledge hockey,” said Tracy Simpson, executive manager of community development services. “The player boxes are wider so they can sit in their sleds in the boxes.
“The benches hockey players sit on can be removed. Then the sleds can be in there nice and comfortably.”
The rinks aren’t the only thing made more accessible, as the entire facility can be passed throughout without going over any barriers.
“If you were in a wheelchair, you can get from the front doors, into the change room, into a shower and onto the bench without having to go over any barriers,” said Simpson.
The new arena will be much brighter with white walls lending to increased brightness.
Seats in the main arena have been installed, boards are in place and crews are working on installing plexiglass.
The facility has washrooms at each corner of the building.
“There’s four banks of washrooms for people to access on all four corners of the building,” said Simpson.
With media in mind, the new arena is much more equipped for photography and video.
“There are spots on that side, as well as this side and on the community rink, for cutouts for ice-level photography,” said Simpson.
“As well as some other camera spots throughout the arena, so you can get some good footage,” said Aalbers.
A new upgrade will be permanent cameras, giving way for streaming of events.
“We’ll have the ability to stream on both ice surfaces at the same time,” said Simpson. “There are fixed cameras in the score clock on centre ice, as well as either end.
“Locations around the concourse for plug and play and additional cameras.”
There will be a central scoreboard in the centre, with a permanent camera in it, along with scoreboards at either end of the ice.
Constructing the new facility has boosted the local economy.
“We’ve seen local journeymen, as well as neighbours, being hired by either PCL or people below,” said Aalbers. “Local rental companies have been supplying a great deal of material.”
PCL has felt accepted into the community throughout the construction process.
“We’ve been really intentional, we’ve had a number of really good contractors from Lloydminster,” said Adam Proznick, project manager. “We’ve tried to buy as much materials and rental equipment from local vendors as well.
“It’s been a pleasure working here and we feel like we’ve been accepted really quickly into the community.”
The low roof of the Civic Centre was a tough sell when it came to some tournaments coming to Lloydminster.
“The Pinty’s (Grand Slam of Curling) were very successful here a number of years ago at the Centennial Civic Centre,” said Aalbers. “But the ceiling was too low for them to get a complete shot of the 12-foot circle.”
He says Pinty’s wouldn’t come back until they fix the problem of the low roof.
The new arena offers flexibility for various types of events, not just on-ice spectacles.
“We can convert it into any kind of facility it needs to be for, conventions or basketball, volleyball, pickleball,” said Aalbers.
The new facility, as planned by the city, won’t have an impact on the other facilities, he said. Rather, they’ll work well with each other.
“We’re not taking away from any of the other facilities in the community, including the curling rink, the Civ, Juba, they should all complement,” said Aalbers.
The new facility will come with 19 dressing rooms.
“So, main dressing rooms, we have four large, two small on each side, plus two ref rooms (and) five private dressing rooms,” said Simpson.
Even with the lease agreements signed between the city and the various teams around Lloyd, they are still free to play out of any of the facilities.
“They can definitely play anywhere. Their preferred choice would be to play here because those fives teams will be (based) here,” said Simpson.
If a tournament were to be hosted in Lloydminster that required extended facility use, the teams may be directed to other facilities during that time.
“If you had, say Pinty’s, here and we had to flip the ice to curling ice for 10 days as an example, they would play somewhere else in the city,” said Simpson. “They’re not limited to just playing here.”
Some of the sponsor boxes on the third floor, which offer a view of the main arena, are still for sale.
“We have four large ones that are kind of 18-person capacity. We have four that are nine-person capacity and two that are six-person,” said Simpson. “They’ll be going on sale just in the next, probably month or so, a lot more details coming.”
If the city decides to expand, there is room around the Hub to expand. The outdoor rink will have boards from the 2014 Scotiabank, Hockey Canada boards.
The Cenovus Energy Hub finally has a more definitive opening date.
“We’re on track for an early September open,” said Simpson.
Read more: Cenovus Energy Hub construction update
