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A rink of their own
Women's and girls' hockey could get a boost if new waterfront project gets the go-ahead, by Mary Ormsby
January 13, 2007
Mary Ormsby
Sports Reporter
The Leaside girls hockey teams play out of 16 different arenas across Toronto because access to affordable ice is so scarce.
Local women who have been the core of Canada's national team frequently leave family, jobs and school behind to train in Calgary. And cheaper, more plentiful suburban arenas to the west are tempting the elite Toronto Aeros junior women's team to leave town.
All the evidence suggests area arenas have long underserved the GTA's approximately 10,000 female hockey players. But a solution could take shape next week when local officials consider a proposed $30 million four-pad arena for the waterfront.
Not only would the development be the GTA's first largely taxpayer-funded arena in more than a quarter-century, it would be the first with a rink dedicated exclusively to female hockey.
The plan, to be discussed Tuesday by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Committee, features an Olympic-sized surface that would be used as a regional training centre for the women's national teams and to stage international competitions. Two other ice pads would be regulation size and one would be dry for sports like box lacrosse.
Toronto's Vicky Sunohara, an Olympic gold medallist at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, said female players are desperate for the facility.
"It's pretty amazing they're going to have one pad for women," said the 36-year-old Sunohara, who leaves for a week-long national training camp Sunday in Calgary.
"I still hear about so many (girls) teams and leagues who have a tough time getting ice and they get put on some crazy ice times and playing in the not-so-great arenas so this is great news for women."
Ted Ashwin, general manager of the Aeros, agrees.
"I'm either going to have to move out of the city to find ice that's appropriate to our level of play," said Ashwin of his program that produces GTA players for U.S. hockey scholarships, adding, "Or, I'll need help in finding the right spot."
The waterfront committee, which received $20 million for sports infrastructure from the federal government in 2004, will discuss the results of a feasibility study. The following day, Wednesday, there will be a public forum on the plans for Lake Ontario Park, an area bounded by the outer harbour between Cherry Beach and Ashbridges Bay and including Tommy Thompson Park.
No arena site has been decided, but sources say Unwin Avenue near Cherry Street is a location under discussion, possibly directly across from Lake Ontario Park but not in it.
"It's a no-brainer," said Brenda Librecz, general manager of the city's parks, forestry and recreation department of taking the user stress off the city's 50 indoor arenas by catering to the booming women's game.
"The city wins in getting an ice rink that will be available to the community, we donate one pad completely to female hockey. ... This is a win-win situation for the objectives of the waterfront in drawing more people to the port lands as a destination."
But not everyone is as quick to embrace hockey as a perfect addition to the coveted waterfront.
"If you're going to be coming down to a new park, you don't want to be running into a huge concrete building as the first thing you see," said city councillor Paula Fletcher, who worries a building with a parking lot will detract from the beauty of the greenbelt. "An arena isn't exactly the most attractive building."
Fletcher said she would fight any plan to ensure an arena "is not stuck onto or into the park" but said a blending of sports needs with park needs is possible.
"I think we have to plan holistically and we'll find a place for everything," said Fletcher, who will attend Wednesday's public forum.
Should the waterfront corporation decide to proceed with the arena, the $10 million funding shortfall could be made up with a blend of government and private sector resources, a spokesperson from Mayor David Miller's office yesterday
Once such example of a private-public partnership is the planned $29 million practice facility for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Marlies in the west end.
Financing is coming from Maple Leaf Sport and Entertainment and the Lakeshore Lions. During non prime time hours, the city has access to ice at below-market rates, with ice time reserved for the Etobicoke Dolphins girls hockey league.
Librecz says it has been 26 years since an arena was built with taxpayer funds. A pair of Scarborough facilities – Malvern and Scarborough Arena Gardens – were erected in 1981. No arenas have been built in the city's core since the 1970s.
Librecz says studies show demand on city arenas continues to grow, especially with more adults playing the game, and more facilities are needed, not just to make ice available but to provide it at a lower cost than the pricey private arenas.
The Leaside Wildcats girls program, for instance, uses private arenas for 45 per cent of its ice time to give its 732 players on 47 teams a place to play. Jordan Grant, Leaside's volunteer director of strategic ice acquisition – yes, that's his title – said the typical city rate for ice is $147 an hour whereas the league pays up to $334 per hour at private rinks.
"That's the killer, the cost of the ice,'' said Grant, who "scrounges" ice at so many arenas to find bargains since Leaside Memorial Arena, a city facility, can't alone service its youth boys and girls programs. There is also a preliminary city proposal to expand Leaside to two pads.
Fran Ryder, the executive director of the Ontario Women's Hockey League, commended the proposed waterfront arena as a public validation of female hockey.
"Ten years ago it would have been beyond belief that an arena would cater exclusively to women," Ryder said. "But the women's game is growing, awareness is growing and it's all good for the game."
A rink of their own
Women's and girls' hockey could get a boost if new waterfront project gets the go-ahead, by Mary Ormsby
January 13, 2007
Mary Ormsby
Sports Reporter
The Leaside girls hockey teams play out of 16 different arenas across Toronto because access to affordable ice is so scarce.
Local women who have been the core of Canada's national team frequently leave family, jobs and school behind to train in Calgary. And cheaper, more plentiful suburban arenas to the west are tempting the elite Toronto Aeros junior women's team to leave town.
All the evidence suggests area arenas have long underserved the GTA's approximately 10,000 female hockey players. But a solution could take shape next week when local officials consider a proposed $30 million four-pad arena for the waterfront.
Not only would the development be the GTA's first largely taxpayer-funded arena in more than a quarter-century, it would be the first with a rink dedicated exclusively to female hockey.
The plan, to be discussed Tuesday by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Committee, features an Olympic-sized surface that would be used as a regional training centre for the women's national teams and to stage international competitions. Two other ice pads would be regulation size and one would be dry for sports like box lacrosse.
Toronto's Vicky Sunohara, an Olympic gold medallist at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin, said female players are desperate for the facility.
"It's pretty amazing they're going to have one pad for women," said the 36-year-old Sunohara, who leaves for a week-long national training camp Sunday in Calgary.
"I still hear about so many (girls) teams and leagues who have a tough time getting ice and they get put on some crazy ice times and playing in the not-so-great arenas so this is great news for women."
Ted Ashwin, general manager of the Aeros, agrees.
"I'm either going to have to move out of the city to find ice that's appropriate to our level of play," said Ashwin of his program that produces GTA players for U.S. hockey scholarships, adding, "Or, I'll need help in finding the right spot."
The waterfront committee, which received $20 million for sports infrastructure from the federal government in 2004, will discuss the results of a feasibility study. The following day, Wednesday, there will be a public forum on the plans for Lake Ontario Park, an area bounded by the outer harbour between Cherry Beach and Ashbridges Bay and including Tommy Thompson Park.
No arena site has been decided, but sources say Unwin Avenue near Cherry Street is a location under discussion, possibly directly across from Lake Ontario Park but not in it.
"It's a no-brainer," said Brenda Librecz, general manager of the city's parks, forestry and recreation department of taking the user stress off the city's 50 indoor arenas by catering to the booming women's game.
"The city wins in getting an ice rink that will be available to the community, we donate one pad completely to female hockey. ... This is a win-win situation for the objectives of the waterfront in drawing more people to the port lands as a destination."
But not everyone is as quick to embrace hockey as a perfect addition to the coveted waterfront.
"If you're going to be coming down to a new park, you don't want to be running into a huge concrete building as the first thing you see," said city councillor Paula Fletcher, who worries a building with a parking lot will detract from the beauty of the greenbelt. "An arena isn't exactly the most attractive building."
Fletcher said she would fight any plan to ensure an arena "is not stuck onto or into the park" but said a blending of sports needs with park needs is possible.
"I think we have to plan holistically and we'll find a place for everything," said Fletcher, who will attend Wednesday's public forum.
Should the waterfront corporation decide to proceed with the arena, the $10 million funding shortfall could be made up with a blend of government and private sector resources, a spokesperson from Mayor David Miller's office yesterday
Once such example of a private-public partnership is the planned $29 million practice facility for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Marlies in the west end.
Financing is coming from Maple Leaf Sport and Entertainment and the Lakeshore Lions. During non prime time hours, the city has access to ice at below-market rates, with ice time reserved for the Etobicoke Dolphins girls hockey league.
Librecz says it has been 26 years since an arena was built with taxpayer funds. A pair of Scarborough facilities – Malvern and Scarborough Arena Gardens – were erected in 1981. No arenas have been built in the city's core since the 1970s.
Librecz says studies show demand on city arenas continues to grow, especially with more adults playing the game, and more facilities are needed, not just to make ice available but to provide it at a lower cost than the pricey private arenas.
The Leaside Wildcats girls program, for instance, uses private arenas for 45 per cent of its ice time to give its 732 players on 47 teams a place to play. Jordan Grant, Leaside's volunteer director of strategic ice acquisition – yes, that's his title – said the typical city rate for ice is $147 an hour whereas the league pays up to $334 per hour at private rinks.
"That's the killer, the cost of the ice,'' said Grant, who "scrounges" ice at so many arenas to find bargains since Leaside Memorial Arena, a city facility, can't alone service its youth boys and girls programs. There is also a preliminary city proposal to expand Leaside to two pads.
Fran Ryder, the executive director of the Ontario Women's Hockey League, commended the proposed waterfront arena as a public validation of female hockey.
"Ten years ago it would have been beyond belief that an arena would cater exclusively to women," Ryder said. "But the women's game is growing, awareness is growing and it's all good for the game."
