Memorial Gardens is the only 200 x 85 arena in the city. The aging arenas at Pete Palangio and West Ferris both are undersized and likely not at the standards to be used to host Hockey Canada national events. PHOTO BY CHRIS DAWSON.
North Bay has targeted Sports Tourism as a priority.
Former high school coach Larry Tougas has been brought in to boost that and a recent announcement of the city hosting 13 Ontario High School Championships within the next three years is evidence that its working.
While the city has been boosted by upgrades to area fields and basketball courts, Tougas says its a challenge to attract events for hockey and baseball, based on the current facilities available in the city.
“Any time you can enhance facilities in the community it gives us a better opportunity to host many different things. Speaking of hockey, an extra rink, sufficient to the needs of hockey would enhance our opportunity to host more events,” said Tougas.
Tougas is hopeful that the sports facility project that could bring a new twin pad behind Canadore College becomes a reality.
Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler has gotten to know Tougas over the past two years. When he saw Sault Ste. Marie was named to host the 2016 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge earlier in May, he knew North Bay had no chance bidding for a tournament of that magnitude with the three arenas currently in place in North Bay.
“If we are talking about sports tourism and we are really serious about it and we feel hockey is going to be a big part of it, we need better facilities,” Butler said bluntly.
“The city seems to have good facilities when it comes to gymnasiums and fields and that stuff but there’s no doubt we are very short rinks here. We only have one rink in town, Memorial Gardens, that is 200 x 85 and if they can put two pads at Canadore and make them 200 x 85 then to have three rinks that close together that you can run tournaments, this could become a real tournament hub. We can’t lose sight of Memorial Gardens either, they've done a good job with the renovations here but if they don’t continue to stay on top of it and do a little more every year and keep the upkeep then it will fall behind too and that will hurt them in the end as well.”
Butler believes better arenas will mean more business for the city.
“We have to find a way to grow the city and one of the best ways is Sports Tourism. It's a huge business and you look what Larry Tougas is doing, its just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
“If we could have an Under-17 World Championship here, a Telus Cup (Boys Midget AAA National Championship) here, an Esso Cup (Girls Midget AA National Championship). You put those type of events here, not only is it great for the city but it gives our own kids here in North Bay an opportunity to compete at a national championship and that would be amazing for those kids as well.”
NCAA Basketball at the Gardens?
While Tougas has focussed on trying to bring a number of high school championships, he says he’s not afraid of thinking outside the box, even suggesting bringing an NCAA Division I basketball team to play an exhibition game against the Lakers Varsity Men’s Basketball team at Memorial Gardens.
Tougas says he got the idea from the University of New Brunswick which has ransformed its hockey rink to a basketball facility to allow for more seating.
“I’ve always dreamed about the fact of bringing a Syracuse or Indiana who have come into Ottawa to Carleton and played there in August and I can’t see why that couldn’t be a possibility of bringing them here too and host it at the Gardens so we could get 5,000 people in the rink and use it as a multi-purpose facility,” suggested Tougas.
“I know the Battalion and the people at the city would strongly back that up because that’s one of the goals and what that thing was built for, to make it a multi-purpose facility so it’s definitely something we want to consider in the future.”
