The Castlegar Rebels are hoping for a longer-term facility agreement with the Regional District of Central Kootenay.
Team president Mitch Rinas appeared before the recreation commission this week, explaining that they would like a three-to-five year deal to use the Castlegar and District Community Complex, rather than the current proposal, which calls for one year with two options for one-year renewals.
He said a longer agreement would allow the team to better plan and finance upgrades to the facillity and stressed that although the Rebels will be playing in a different league this season, they will continue to be community-owned.
Rinas said the team is hoping to add a second storey to the existing dressing room.
“My understanding through the design and talking to the engineer is that the dressing room was built to facilitate a second floor,” he said in an interview afterward. “We’d like to build that to provide places for coaches, offices, a stretching room, and a proper training room.”
However, in writing grant applications for capital upgrades, he said it’s helpful to be able to show that they will be able to use the facility for a longer time. Rinas said the exact payment structure for the work would be a matter of negotiation with the regional district, but he expects the team would come up with most of the funding, since it will primarily benefit them.
Rinas said in the past, the Rebels have usually had five-year agreements, although the last one was three years so that it would expire at the same time as agreements for junior hockey clubs in Nelson and Creston, allowing all renewals to occur at the same time.
He said he was told that one of the reasons the regional district has proposed a shorter term is because the Rebels will be playing this season in the new Western International Junior Hockey League, rather than the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.
“We were at the recreation commission to assure them that we aren’t looking for a short term [arrangement],” he said. “This is our 50th anniversary year and we are looking forward to another 50 years.”
Rinas revealed that they recently turned down an offer from someone who wanted to buy the team. He said the decision didn’t require much thought.
“The board of directors is very on board with keeping a community-based non-profit because that way we can keep our costs to the players down and spend more time working on developing as opposed to trying to make a profit,” he said.
The Rebels were under private ownership in the mid-1990s as members of the now-defunct Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League, but they subsequently reverted to community ownership.
The recreation commission made no immediate decision on the team’s request, but Rinas thought directors seemed receptive. While a longer deal is the team’s major ask, some other items still need to be worked out as well, he said.
Regardless of the outcome, the team’s upcoming season won’t be affected. Rinas said the old agreement will remain in effect until a new one is sign, as long as negotiations continue in good faith.
