Brandon Sportsplex Arena shut down due to ice plant repairs

Hockey and skating enthusiasts in Brandon will have one less rink to skate on for the foreseeable future.

The City of Brandon announced Friday that the Sportsplex Arena ice plant will continue to be shut down until early next year.

Director of Parks and Recreation Perry Roque said the plant was turned off due to an ammonia leak in March.

"We shut down the ice plant for safety and then we had a company come in and do an assessment of the plant, and now we're doing the repairs," said Roque.

Though there was no immediate danger to the public, Roque said they shut the plant down just to be safe. "We were not going to take any chances with the public or any of our staff, so we shut it down before it became a danger," he said.

The City has determined the cost of repairs, but is first doing a needs assessment to see if the arena is still needed in the area.

"There was no sense in repairing the plant until we knew for sure that there was still the need for an ice surface in the community," said Roque.

He added they are also looking to cost out other upgrades that may be needed to the aging facility.

"It is an older building, so you know we still have male and female dressing rooms in our pool side and we have small dressing rooms on the arena side," said Roque. "So we were looking at all of that as well to bring that all up to today's standards."

The assessment will be completed over the summer, along with a new conceptual design for the arena.

While the Sportsplex ice will be gone for the next six months, the City of Brandon still has four other arenas to skate in.

Roque said there are also plenty of arenas in surrounding communities. "Rivers, Minnedosa, Oak Lake, Shilo, Wawanesa, Souris - are all within 20-30 minute drives, and the Brandon community has always made use of those facilities," he said.