New Arena in Smithers
Photo courtesy Town of Smithers
Smithers, B.C. – After almost 20 years of planning, Smithers will finally open the doors to its new arena tomorrow.
The new $4.8 million rink features an NHL-sized ice surface, 350 seats, five dressing rooms, an indoor walking area and an accessible spectator viewing platform.
Though the opening was delayed a couple of months due to sub contractor touch-ups, Smithers director of recreation, parks and culture Andrew Hillaby says the new ice will fill a big need in the community.
“Our other arena has been at 98% capacity the past four or five years,” adding inquiries about ice time have come from all quarters including the local school district and First Nations bands.
Locals will get a chance to take a special tour of the new facility when the town holds a grand opening Wednesday January 14th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The celebration will include a free public skate along with snacks and coffee.
Comments
good job Smithers , Prince George by comparison tears down a good arena we already had and spends 3X more to build a new one . no problem just hike the taxes up .
Posted on Sunday, January 4, 2015 @ 11:38 AM by reallyrick
good job Smithers , Prince George by comparison tears down a good arena we already had and spends 3X more to build a new one . no problem just hike the taxes up .
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The old Kin 1 was by no means a “good arena.” The ice surface wasn’t even regulation size and the dressing rooms underneath the bleachers were something special.
Of course, 15 million on it’s replacement was nutso.
A nice addition to Smithers and a beautiful picture above.
we got by with the small dressing rooms and when you got both there was lots of room . was also great for lacrosse . a reno and a new arena like Smithers did would of been nice .
First of all the new Kin 1 is probably twice the size of the Smithers arena as it seats closer to 800 and is an Olympic size ice surface. Secondly the $15M paid for a lot more than just the new Kin 1, that also paid for the refurbishment of Kin 2 and the entire upper concourse is new as well.
Of course we could have just put up another butler building and confirmed to the nation that we truly are a bunch of penny pinching rednecks!
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