Anyone looking to play some dry-land sports this winter in Chatham-Kent is in luck.
On Monday, council approved a motion by Councillor Karen Kirkwood-Whyte that no ice be installed at Thames Campus Arena in Chatham this winter to accommodate non-ice activities for the 2020-2021 season.
The move comes after council previously approved removing the ice from Erickson Arena and Bothwell Arena this winter to accommodate non-ice sports. That decision was reversed by council shortly after, following an outcry from ice user groups who had already paid for ice time at the two arenas.
However, Kirkwood-Whyte said the possibility of having a facility for dry-land sports was met with support from a variety of non-ice groups. A petition was also recently created in support of repurposing Thames Arena for indoor sports, which collected over 320 signatures in four days.
Manager of Parks and Open Spaces Jeff Bray said he's been in constant consultation with groups that are interested in using Thames Arena including lacrosse, tennis, softball, fastball, baseball, volleyball and pickleball groups. The municipality has already received interest for approximately 87 of the 119 hours available at Thames Arena.
"I have not asked for more definitive hours, but all of them are very enthusiastic... If we're getting up into the 80s [of ice time hours,] I don't know when the last time was that we had that many hours at an arena."
According to Bray, his team has been testing heating in the arena using three out of the five available heaters, which resulted in an ideal temperature for active play.
If the amount of interest exceeds the capacity of the arena, Bray said he has met with the manager of the John D. Bradley Convention Centre, who indicated that user groups could utilize the convention centre for their activities.
"We'd have to coordinate booking time so it doesn't interfere with exhibits and conference type of activities... It's a discussion point, for sure," said Bray.
As for if this programming option will be available in the winters to come, Bray said he views this year as an "interesting trial" and will be in discussions with the user groups to see if they would continue to utilize a similar amenity post-pandemic.
"There are some aspects that make this a unique year," he said. "There's a lot of people that would typically fly south for the winter and this isn't going to happen for obvious reasons...What I'd like to do, once we have the program up and running, I plan to have some dialogue with all the groups to see what their intent and what their wishes are, if they'd like to see this continue on."