By Darren
Steinke
Gordie Howe Sports Complex
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| The K+S Potash Canada Multi-sport Centre. |
The K+S
Potash Canada Multi-sport Centre is bringing in good reviews.
The newest
building on the Gordie Howe Sports Complex grounds first started earnestly
housing user groups inside its doors during the start of this past winter’s
skating season. The Saskatoon Lions Speed Skating Club was the first user group
that got to take advantage of the new structure.
Lions
President Chris Veeman said the storied speed skating club enjoyed settling
into the new stomping grounds.
“We’re getting used to this new home, and so far, so good,”
said Veeman. “The upstairs viewing area and the timing rooms are really
fantastic.
“We’ve been able to run some meets pretty easily, because it
is has been easy for us to set up electronic timing. It has meant that our kids
can have some races where we don’t have to have a whole army of volunteers, so that
has been really good. The change rooms and all of that are nice and new and
functional.
“That has worked out well.”
The Multi-sport Centre replaces the old
grandstand at Cairns Field, which was torn down in April of 2018. The old
grandstand was used by both the baseball and the speed skating communities.
The new
building, which has 20,000 square feet of space on its two floors, will be used
by the baseball and speed skating communities along with the track and field
community. The Clarence Downey Speed Skating Oval that is located to the west
of the Multi-sport Centre during the winter months converts into the Track and
Field Track during the summer months.
The Track
and Field Track was first used in 2019.
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| A timing and announcer booth overlooks the Oval. |
The Lions
were the initial group to use the new dressing rooms in the Multi-sport Centre
along with the features on the building’s west side that included the outdoor
stands, the second floor indoor spectator viewing area, and the timing and
announcer booths.
Along with
those features, the Lions and those that came out for public skating were able
to use an indoor sitting area that was made to allow people to change into
skates.
For the
maintenance staff, they made great use of the comforts of a new Zamboni garage
located on the building’s south side.
On the ice, the Lions
usually held practices four nights a week from December to February and often
hosted club speed skating meets on Saturday mornings. Challenges with the
ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic didn’t allow the club to host any
competitive meets this past season.
During
speed skating and track and field meets, the west side of the Multi-sport
Centre can seat 1,850 spectators and can be expanded to seat 3,500 spectators
with temporary seating.
The Lions
put the new electronic timing booths to good use at club meets, and that was a
feature the club couldn’t believe it went without in the past.
“It is a lot easier to run an event,” said Veeman. “In the
past, we had a couple of huts that were outside, and that is where our timers
would be.
“They would be crowded into a little kind of a wooden hut.
It was challenging to set up the electronic timing equipment, because you
basically had to haul it between the two huts for different distances. It is
hard on the equipment, and it just slows things down.
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| The official’s lounge at the Multi-sport Centre. |
“This going to be a lot more time efficient when we have a
big competition plus the volunteers don’t have to be outside and running around
outside during the day, so it will be easier on the volunteers too.”
Jason
Reindl, who is the Head Coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Track
and Field teams, said the track and field community is looking forward to using
the Multi-sport Centre.
“It is just a huge addition to how we are able to kind of
orientate our practices and our track meets,” said Reindl, who is the Head Coach
for Athletics Canada’s under-20 team along with holding a number of other elite
coaching positions. “Any time you can offer meeting rooms and officials spaces
and a timing booth that can withstand inclement weather, they are all benefits
to just kind of increase the professionalism of hosting a track meet in
Saskatoon at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.”
Reindl was
pleased to hear the speed skating community was happy with the timing booths,
and he said the track and field community is looking forward to using that
feature of the Multi-sport Centre.
“It really just provides a stable environment for our
timers,” said Reindl. “So much of track meets operates on very tight schedules,
and when they can just sit in a nice warm room and don’t have to worry about
rain or wind or any of those things, it just goes a long way to providing a
great environment.”
The east side of the Multi-sport Centre serves the Cairns
Field baseball park. By the end of the 2021 baseball season, user groups were
able to utilize the new stands that ran along the Cairns Field baselines and
inserted on the second level of the Multi-sport Centre behind home plate.
The east side of the Multi-sport Centre also contains a new
scorers and statistics booth, a new media booth and an events office to serve
users of Cairns Field. There is also an official’s lounge on the second floor
that can be used by all sports groups.
“It is going to be great knowing that fans have a place to
sit,” said Greg Brons, who is the High Performance Director for Baseball Sask.
“The dressing rooms are going to be nice.
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| An area to change into skates at the Multi-sport Centre. |
“The kids won’t have to dress in the parking lot. The
umpires had to dress in the parking lot. It is going to be nice to have a clean
bathroom as opposed to the porta potties.
“We’re really looking forward to those facilities for sure.”
The new Multi-sport Centre will allow the baseball, speed
skating and track and field communities to hold bigger competitions and
potentially nationals.
Reindl said the new building will be a huge benefit in going
after national track and field championship meets.
“That is going to be the primary reason why that will
happen,” said Reindl. “The bid process to secure championships is quite
competitive across the country.
“With this venue, we’re now able to actually able to put our
name in the hat and try and secure some of these larger scale events and bring
hundreds and thousands of people to Saskatoon and bring tourism dollars and let
them know that we have a great city, and especially in the summer, you definitely
want to take advantage of all that the city has to offer.”
Brons said the Multi-sport Centre makes it more possible to
bring the Baseball Canada Cup and potentially other national events to
Saskatoon.
“It will help quite a bit, especially because we need meeting
space,” said Brons. “We need areas for fans to sit.
“I think it will be an ideal spot for the Canada Summer
Games in the future or any national tournament maybe another Baseball Canada
Cup, because we hosted it back in 2015. I think the most important thing is
just a good playing surface is one of the most important things when it comes
to hosting a nationals or a Canada Games more than anything.
“It is going to be a real nice bonus to have a good
building.”
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| A look at the Multi-sport Centre from Cairns Field. |
Veeman said the COVID-19 pandemic is still causing
difficulties in scheduling for speed skating. He said the local club will have
a good chance to get some of those bigger events, but he was cautious about the
wheels going in motion on that front.
“Having this new facility, I think it would be attractive to
the people that are awarding those competitions,” said Veeman. “The big
competition that we have is a brand new indoor oval in Quebec City that was
just finished.
“Once there are more meets, because COVID has still
cancelled almost all the meets this year, I think we will have a good chance to
host some of those big ones again for sure.”
