Pools and Arenas Popular with P.G. Residents

By 250 News

        Prince George, B.C. - When it comes to  recreation in Prince George, the pools and arenas are  very popular.

In making  a presentation to Council for  budget considerations,  Leisure Services Manager, Tom Madden  outlined some  growth areas.

Aquatics:

The aquatics portion of the Leisure Services budget calls for  $2.17 million  as the difference between the revenues of  $1.41 million, and expenditures of  $3.58 million. The biggest reason for the  high  cost of  expenditures is  heating. "It takes alot of energy toheartthose two bodies of water" says Leisure Services Manager Tom Madden. 

Arenas:

Some of the Highlights of the CN Centre and community arenas over the past year include,

• 12% growth in ice time use at the Kin arenas
• the installation of the video scoreclock,
• the Royal Bank Cup  tournament
• special events like concerts and the rodeo 

Although there has been an increase in events being held at the CN Centre, therehasn’t been  a significant increasein attenadance.  "We would like to get back to the kind of attendance numbers we saw in 2000"says Tom Madden "The 2000 numbers  also included the Scott Turnament of Hearts, but  still, we would like to see that  kind of attendance".  The 2000 attendance was close to 350 thousand, and  the numbers were about 180 thousand in 2007.

Highlights of the year  ahead include the Canadian Major Indoor Soccer games set for April, the Forest and Resource AExpo in June and the PGX in August

The CN Centre is expected to bring in revenues of  just under $1.3 million,  and expenditures will be just shy of $1.8 million meaning the budget will need to cover about  half a million dollars.

Civic Centre:

The Civic Centre  can boast  about 2007.  It  hosted fewer shows, but netted record  fees.

There  has been a drop in the sport  events at the Civic Centre.   in 2006 there has been 56 such events held there, compared to 26 in 2007.  The drop  of nearly 50% is linked to the opening of the Northern Sport Centre.

Banquets and weddings are up by about 14% and there was a 40% increase in conventions and trade shows.

It is estimated the events  pumped about $8.4 million dollars into the local economy.

As for community services such as the Pine Valley Golf Course and the Prince George Playhouse,   staff say the focus for the coming year is on  customer service, partnerships and space utilization to maximize the use of the space.

There is a new project for 2008  under the Community Heritage banner, funded by  grants, the 20 thousand dollar  project  will  cover costs for  education about and  compilation of heritage items.

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