Medicine Hat Curling Centre finds new GM ahead of fall re-opening

“When the opportunity presented itself for a new general manager as the president, I figured it was something that I’ve been doing already as the president. Sort of the ins and outs of the facility seemed like it’d be something that I could make a living out of and was passionate about,” he added.

“I resigned from my role as president and put my application in and one thing led to the other and I was named a successful applicant. I’m very thankful for it and I’m looking forward to the month that lie ahead.”

Smith had spent the previous two years as president with two years prior to that as vice president.

Most of Smith’s term as president was during the curling centre being shut down since late 2022 due to ice issues, where a new plant, brine lines and additional renovations where undertaken.

Smith does expect a strong number of curlers to return when they re-open in the fall.

“We sent out a survey to our membership and some community members about a month ago and went through the results and from the feedback we’ve gathered it looks like it’s going to be a promising fall time,” Smith said.

“It looks like there’s a lot of curlers that have missed the sport, a few people that maybe haven’t curled in this facility yet or are new to Medicine Hat and were quite disappointed when we were closed,” he added.

“We’re expecting a pretty solid turnout come the fall time. The more people we have in the building the better.”

The curling centre will also focus on gaining new members.

“We’re looking at a couple things. We’ve tried a couple learn to curl clinics in the past. It’s something I think we’re going to focus on revamping a little bit making it a little more fun, a little more accessible. People come out and try it more like a fun recreation league than anything,” Smith said.

“Reaching out to our different curling centres and curling clubs around the community. Redcliff, Irvine seeing how we can attract some of their curlers, how we can send our curlers to their facilities and sort of intermingle,” he added.

“Then trying to get ourselves back into the education system. Getting students out here during June class, getting a high school league going, getting in touch with the college program.”

The renovations and budgeting is where it needs to be according to Smith.

“We had a meeting with our general contractor earlier this week. Surprisingly on quite a large ticket item as far as a plant and ice mats go. We actually are relatively on budget and we’re relatively on schedule,” Smith said.

“Which is something that going into this project were concerns we had. Something we haven’t tackled in the past before so we didn’t know how that would all play out, as far as fundraising and other things like that in place,” he added.

“As far as our main project is concerned we feel fairly confident with where we’re at. As far as anything else in the building we still feel in a comfortable position but as you and all and other community members know as soon as something starts going right something else might break. So we’re trying to go ahead have a reserve fund ready to go to deal with any issues and then also trying to modernize and update the facility a little bit.”

Bathroom renovations and painting the locker rooms as a few of the potential updates mentioned by Smith.

“Trying to go ahead and make it a little bit more friendly and welcoming to the public.”

The City of Medicine Hat purchased the building from the Curling Centre in July 2018.

Smith said things are in good shape with the lease agreement.

“That’s all been worked out. I think there might be a few T’s to cross and a couple of I’s to dot but for the most part the leg work and everything has been all taken care of with that,” Smith said.

“We feel very comfortable with that as well,” he added.

“We’re really looking forward to getting back and going in the fall time.”

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Curling Centre finds new GM ahead of fall re-opening

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