Arena Task Force achieves first milestone

The Arena Task Force has achieved an important milestone confirming Penticton needs at least as many arenas as there are currently in order to provide existing services and programs to the community. The milestone was shared as part of an update to Council at the April 4 meeting. The Task Force based their findings on a review of the Arena Needs Analysis prepared by GDH Solutions in June 2016 that looked at the ice and dry floor usage in the existing four arenas including projected future demand. The Arena Needs Analysis concluded that Penticton arenas are at or near capacity for prime-time use during the regular season and that bookings have increased 7.63% between 2013 and 2015.

Commercial use of Penticton arenas

In addition to reviewing the Arena Needs Analysis, the Task Force also asked for more information on use of community ice by the Okanagan Hockey Group (OHG). The results of this analysis showed that OHG accounts for 35% of Penticton’s bookings and that 87% of the 4,500 hours they book are during non-prime hours. The analysis also showed that OHG pays higher ice rental rates than any other commercial, private or minor sports organization and that in 2017, OHG anticipates it will pay over $535,000 in ice rental fees for non-prime time use.

Use of South Okanagan Events Centre

Another area explored by the Task Force was the opportunity to optimize the use of the South Okanagan Events Centre (SOEC). Because the SOEC hosts a wide variety of events in the evening and can only confirm bookings 60 days out, it can’t reliably meet the needs of the user groups during the prime time demand. As a result, the SOEC can only book approximately 1,700 hours of surface time.

You can read the full report in the Council Reports section in the Document Library on this site.