Community groups make their case for ice time
by Carole Stimmel

The Ted Reeve Arena Board of Management met on Feb. 16 at the Beaches Lions Club House to hear community groups make their case for receiving ice time at Ted Reeve Arena for the 2010/2011 season. The allocation of prime time ice at the eight Toronto board-run arenas has become a hot-button issue after Leaside Girls Hockey Association accused arena boards of unfair ice allocation practices.

Ice allocation policies for these arenas are currently under review by the city’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department, which requested at a Community Development and Recreation Committee meeting that the allocation be based on city-wide, not community, criteria. At the Feb. 3 meeting Parks, Forestry and Recreation General Manager Brenda Patterson, recommended that all future ice time allocations be managed by the city – a proposal which the board-run arenas opposed. After almost 12 hours of deputations and debate, the committee rejected the staff report. City Council will have a chance to wade in on the issue this week. Councillor Sandra Bussin believes that council might approve a compromise where board-run arenas can allocate their own ice time provided they follow city policy.

However, the battle is not over, particularly for the Ted Reeve Board. The problem is that city policy dictates that ice be allotted first to priority groups: 60% to community youth, 25% to competitive youth, one per cent to competitive junior hockey, 13% to community adult and one per cent to commercial users. About half of the board-run arenas’ allocations met these criteria for the 2009/2010 season. Based on the raw numbers, Ted Reeve does not.

Keith Begley, chair of the Ted Reeve Board said that the issue is complicated.

“Our relationship framework gives us a mandate to serve the community within our catchment area [Victoria Park to the Don Valley, Danforth to the lake]. If you look at the time allotted to local community groups [based on the percentage of residents who live in the catchment area], we are meeting our numbers."

That said, the board has opted to review its ice allocation policy. While that review is currently under way, the board did go ahead and accept applications from groups interested in securing ice for the next season at its Feb. 16 meeting.

The first presentation was by Leaside Girls Hockey Association, which requested 11 hours of ice time based on the number of Leaside girls who live in Ted Reeve’s catchment (230 according to Leaside’s count).

Ron Baker, president of Leaside Girls, said that “for 15 years we had time on Sunday mornings. We didn’t get that in 2009...and we want to get back into Ted Reeve...We want our fair share of time and want to pay the same rates as everyone else. Not more, not less."

However, according to Ted Reeve Manager Mike Haughton, only 120 Leaside girls live within the catchment area, which, if correct, would cut the number of hours that Leaside Girls would be eligible for in half.

Baker and Leaside Girls registrar Laura Wilson had a number of questions about how ice time was allocated, but Begley reminded them that this meeting was just for group presentations.

The second group to request time was the Balmy Beach Club, which has run a men’s hockey league on Friday night for 50 years. Sarah Dann, athletic director of the club, said that the Friday nights are a family time, based on “year after year of tradition."

The club argued that changing to a later time or moving to the “Bubble” (Beaches Sports Centre) would take the community element out of the league.

A similar argument was used by the Loose Ends, another community hockey league which has been using the arena for 40 years. Loose Ends members said that moving to the bubble was an issue because spectators were important to the experience (the Bubble has no stands), and the ice time is considerably more expensive.

Stephen King made the presentation for the Ted Reeve Hockey Association (TRHA), which has operated at Ted Reeve since 1969. More than 80% of the members of TRHA come from within the Ted Reeve catchment. King said that the TRHA is requesting two hours less in ice time than last year because the number of players in the Tyke division has dropped considerably. However, the association has plans to start an all girls league.

In a later interview, Bussin questioned the practicality of starting a new girls league, when a well-established girls league can’t get time.

“It [girls hockey] is still an emerging sport. Does it make sense for two groups to compete for the same population?” she said.

King pointed out, that because of the city’s policy, he fully expects to have to move his Select teams to the Bubble. He also said that the TRHA pays for 455 hours of practice time in other arenas.

Not making a presentation was the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL), which last year received 22 hours a week of prime ice time. And the GTHL numbers are the reason Ted Reeve does not meet the city’s allocation priorities.

However, as Begley said, ice allocation is complicated. Many players on the GTHL teams that use Ted Reeve are from the Beach. In addition, board-run arenas are required to be fiscally responsible. GTHL is charged the most per hour for ice, which allows Ted Reeve to stay solvent and to keep the rates low for other users.

Begley said that he strongly believes that the board was given a mandate to serve the community, which includes youth groups, adults and competitive players who live in the area. “Until the city changes our relationship framework, we will put the community first."

The Ted Reeve board hopes to have some answers for the applicants by the March 15 board meeting.