With the official start of winter less than three weeks away, officials with London’s Centennial Hall are turning to indoor sports to help breathe life into the facility over the colder months after what’s been a lengthy stretch of downtime due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The local entertainment landmark, which first opened in 1967, has been transformed into the city’s newest — albeit temporary — indoor sports arena with the installation of a ball hockey rink measuring about half the size of a normal NHL rink.
The rink will be set up on the main floor of the venue’s concert space from now through to the end of March for rental to members of the community, said Brad Jones, president of Jones Entertainment Group (JEG), the company which operates the city-owned facility.
Jones says the Centennial Hall rink is a combination of two of the company’s businesses: the hall, and the Hockey Fest event it launched two years ago, the most recent edition of which was held in August in the parking lot of Westmount Shopping Centre. More than 140 teams took part.
“I own 30 sets of rink boards and three tractor trailers that are sitting in a yard that we typically don’t pull out until May, June and July, August. So I said to my team, ‘go grab one of the rinks,'” Jones said Thursday during an interview on London Live with Mike Stubbs.
“It’s my job to be as creative as I can to bring in some rental revenue for Centennial Hall and the city of London and ultimately the taxpayers. So, I just put our two businesses together.”
The hall’s non-theatre-style seating, which Jones says has sometimes drawn the ire of concertgoers unable to get a good view of the stage from more distant rows, has turned into a blessing in disguise, allowing for a flat surface that’s perfect for a rink once the seats themselves are taken out.
“We feel that there is a market for rentals, for birthday parties, for corporate team buildings. Just in the last 24 hours, we’ve had four or five emails from a group of friends, 14 guys that want to get together, have a beer — because we’re licensed — they want to have a beer and play road hockey in a safe environment,” Jones said.
“We’re just trying to be creative. The hall’s here. We’ve got to turn the heat on every day anyways. We might as well have 25 people every hour in the building having fun and being active,” Jones said.
A 15-step COVID-19 protocol has been established for the plan, and officials with JEG have worked with the health unit to make sure they meet pandemic restrictions in place locally and provincially.
“We have staff to make sure that if there’s any spectators, it’s limited to one spectator per participant. But we’ve got lots of seats for parents or girlfriends or boyfriends to spread out,” he said.
Rentals of the rink space are set to begin in January and continue until the end of March with prices ranging from $125 to $150 per hour. Those interested are being asked to email info@jonesentertainmentgroup.ca.
Centennial Hall is set to host the city’s first live touring acts in nearly a year in January, including The Dueling Piano Show on Jan. 22 and 23, and Alan Doyle on Jan. 29.
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