Groups looking to book ice time at the local arena this season will pay a little more. Black Diamond town council approved increases to rental fees and advertising rates for the Oilfields Regional Arena and outdoor Scott Seaman Sports Rink effective Aug. 1. This is the first increase since the 2015-2016 season. Sharlene Brown, Black Diamond CAO, said it’s important to keep the rates competitive with other arenas, as well as affordable for local teams. “That’s something we have to be cognizant of,” she said. “As ice time rentals go up so does hockey and figure skating registration fees.” Brown said the new fees will come into effect in time for hockey school bookings. The increase means local youth groups or teams using the arena at prime time will pay $140, up $5 an hour, and adult groups or teams at prime time will pay $200, up $10 an hour, for the indoor arena. Among the advertising costs is $200, an increase of $25 annually, for wall advertisements in both facilities and $400, an increase of $15 annually, on boards in both arenas. There will be no price change for rink usage without ice. Joe Fenton, High Country Minor Hockey Association president, said fee increases at arenas often result in rising registration fees. “We tend to add a bit to our fees every year or two because we know it goes up almost every year,” he said. “Usually every other year the referee costs go up, too. Hockey Alberta dictates that increase. There’s always something that goes up.” Fenton said the association expects eight teams this year, which rely heavily on the Oilfields Arena. The rest of the time the teams are anywhere from Consort to the United States border, Fenton said. As for the fee increase, Fenton said it’s par for the course. “We expect it,” he said. “It doesn’t make it right, but I’m sure they really don’t have a choice. Compared to Okotoks and Calgary they’re still cheaper.” Parks and recreation manager Les Quinton recommended the increases to meet the rising operation costs. “We have to keep increasing the fees because our costs keep going up,” he said. “Even though we continue to reduce the quantity of electricity we use, the transmission and distribution fees keep increasing - same with natural gas.” During the past several years, the Town strived to make the arena more energy efficient with the installation of solar panels, energy management systems, LED lights, a high efficiency furnace, low-flow toilets, low-flow and motion sensor showers and motion sensor lightings. With the Town proposing an increase in its flat-rate water fee from $43 to $344 and sewer from $86 to $688 every two months starting in June for the building’s two-inch water meter, Quinton said that will also impact the arena’s costs. “It will make a huge increase to our water and sewer bill,” he said. “Of course the carbon tax is increasing a bit so that’s put our natural gas up more and the stuff being delivered it increases the cost of all the goods. Costs rise so we have to bring up our costs to the users to help cover that.” To avoid scaring away potential users, Quinton said he researches what other arenas in the area charge to ensure the rates aren’t too high. “I track Calgary and area arenas to see what everybody else is charging,” he said. “We are still lower. We try to keep our costs down by conserving, but we’re not able to keep up with some of the increases.” Quinton said usage of the indoor rink has remained over 1,600 hours and up to 400 for the outdoor rink annually the last four years. “We were fairly consistent,” he said. “What we are running at is about average. We would like to sell more during the day, but we don’t have the population.” The arena draws from the MD of Foothills south of Longview northwest to Bragg Creek and east to Okotoks, he said. With the twinning of the Pason Centennial Arena in Okotoks this year, Quinton expects to see a drop in hours of about 135 for the indoor rink and 71 for the outdoor rink. “Any time a facility opens in Okotoks or the south end of Calgary, even the one in Dunbow, I took a drop in usage,” he said. “With the south Fish Creek twinning in 2001, we dropped 120 hours.” Quinton said when the Centennial Arena was build, usage at the Oilfields Regional Arena dropped from 1,605 hours in 2004 to 1,430.5 in 2006 for the indoor rink and the summer hours dropped from 333.25 in 2006 to 96 in 2007. “It never recovered,” he said. “We were at 55.5 hours last year.”
