Kamloops City Councillors will vote on spending $200,000 on a temporary elevated platform inside Sandman Centre ahead of this year’s Memorial Cup.
In a report to City Council, Parks and Facilities Manager, Jeff Putnam, says the pre-designed platform will be at the east end of the Sandman Centre concourse – near the Zamboni entrance.
“This requirement was not identified by the Canadian Hockey League during previous facility discussions and became more apparent as we worked towards a venue hosting plan that satisfied all requirements from a broadcast and team hosting perspective,” Putnam wrote in his report, noting the platform will accommodate around 200 additional spectators inside Sandman Centre.
“Sandman Centre is a 30-year-old building. It is not one of the larger venues anymore in the Western Hockey League so what we’ve done is we’ve looked at pre-engineered fancy scaffolding that is elevated,” Putnam told NL News.
“I’m going to say its about 12 feet above the concourse to allow circulation underneath like it would normally be at a hockey game and then on top, we’re proposing to put the broadcast booth for the TSN announcers and some suites for various folks and sponsors.”
He noted the ‘flexible’ design will allow for good circulation on the concourse while adding private space for the TSN Broadcast Centre, CHL officials, sponsors, and team officials.
“That was what we think is an elegant solution to increasing capacity, the opportunity to host more people and make our broadcast partner more successful,” Putnam added.
“Originally, we didn’t think the price was going to be as high as $200,000, but as we looked into it more deeply in the last few weeks, we realized, we wouldn’t be able to cover it with existing budget.”
Sandman Centre has already seen $940,000 in upgrades included improvements to the game presentation systems, the video production control room and video replay systems, the broadcast cable infrastructure, as well as new signs, sponsorship, and distributed video systems at the arena.
It also included some temporary dehumidification and air conditioning units for the ten-day tournament.
That $940,000 cost was was split between the Community Works Funds ($445,000), the Asset Management Reserve fund ($350,000), Gaming Grants ($120,000) and the facility’s existing operating budget ($25,000).
Putnam is recommending that the City Council approve the new funding request at Tuesday’s council meeting. He is suggesting the City use its Gaming Reserve to pay for it ahead of the Memorial Cup which gets underway on May 26.
“If council gives us the green light then, we would start right away,” he said. “Basically, once the metal structure is put together then other crews come in and they put the curtains and there is a little bit of digital billboards that maybe we’re considering for that, and some other signage, tables, chairs, and that type of thing.”
“It takes several weeks for it to all come together.”
As for why City Council is being asked to pay for the platform, Putnam noted those costs are typically shouldered by the host venue.
Last year, the City estimated that the 2023 Memorial Cup would have an economic impact between $12 million and $15 million.