Making back lost financial ground just got a lot harder for Westerner Park in the face of new provincial restrictions against COVID-19.
Convention centres and arenas are now prohibited from selling food and beverages to patrons, in order to reduce the spread of the more transmissible new Omicron variant. The provincial government is also reducing seating capacity at large events by 50 per cent.
Westerner Park’s CEO Mike Olesen expects the food and drink sales ban, in particular, to have a significant impact on the exhibition centre’s bottom line.
“It’s extremely limiting to what we can do,” he explained.
While Olesen understands why these rules were put in place, and supports efforts to promote public health measures to slow the rise of hospitalizations expected from the more spreadable Omicron virus, he added, it’s still “frustrating,” given the past two years.
The financially beleaguered Westerner Park was finally set to make some revenues from the World Juniors hockey championship and other sporting and music events scheduled for January and February.
Olesen said the facility rental fees Hockey Canada is paying to hold some World Juniors games in the Centrium will ensure Westerner Park doesn’t lose money on this event.
But he doesn’t expect to make the money needed to support facilities upkeep, under the food and drinks ban.
A Hockey Rivalry series between Canada’s national women’s team and team U.S.A. is lined up at Westerner Park for early January. Whether this goes ahead, with the cross-border travel involved, is “out of our control,” said Olesen.
If it does run, he predicted “we will be in the same circumstances if restrictions continue.”
Also, Red Deer Rebels hockey games are to resume next month. Olesen doesn’t anticipate the 50-per-cent capacity seating restrictions will have much impact since 4,500 tickets can still be sold for the Centrium, “which is the upper limit of our attendance levels.”
But he wonders whether hockey fans will still buy tickets if they can’t have a beer and burger while watching the game.
Looking ahead into 2022, Olesen sees a lot more uncertainty. A professional bull riding event, RV show and Centrium concert by The Offspring are all scheduled for early in the New Year. “We can’t speculate what will happen, but (given the restrictions) it’s going to hurt,” he predicted.
In the meantime, Westerner Park is able to draw on a $3 million grant that Red Deer City Council approved in 2020 to tide the exhibition complex over during the course of the pandemic, if needed.
Olesen is grateful for the far-sightedness of council, calling the grant approval “prudent planning,” given recent developments. “We will need to draw on that grant to stay fluid through this period.”
If Albertans take reasonable precautions over Christmas and manage to slow the spread of the virus, Olesen hopes these restrictions can soon be lifted.
A new report from the B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Group is predicting Alberta could see 6,000 new COVID-19 cases daily by Jan. 1. So far, the highest daily case count for Alberta was 2,300 cases in April. Doubling that would push hospital to the breaking point, say health experts.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter