Peak back in time: SFU Ice Rink Voted Down

“The ice rink was defeated about 2–1; this was the climax, the cataclysm of the whole event. As students raised their hands to vote ‘no’ there was a short silence, heads bobbing each way, and then a spontaneous burst of applause,” Peak writer Don Scholl wrote 31 years ago this week.

About 900 students had gathered at the SFSS Annual General Meeting in the gym on February 19, 1974 — the majority of them to vote down a proposed ice rink up here on the mountain.

Wait a second. We almost had an ice rink? And we voted it down?

If it were up to the SFU administration at the time, SFU Hockey wouldn’t play at the Bill Copeland Arena — they would instead play in a rink within walking distance from the AQ.

On February 1, 1973, the then-vice president of administration, George Suart, requested a feasibility study to see if an ice rink could be done profitably. This set in motion a year-long saga that would end with as many ice rinks as they started with.

The plan was tentatively approved at a Board of Governors (BoG) meeting on April 17. However, the rink approved was significantly smaller.

The proposed location was the southeast corner of lot B. In a memorandum to Suart, William De Vries, of the Physical Plant and Planning department, noted that the building would be a “pre-engineered steel structure [as it] is the cheapest method of constructing a facility of this nature.”

In all, the project was estimated to cost about $925,000 (over $4 million in today’s dollars), with about $625,000 coming from the Board of Governors. It was reasoned that the venture could break even if 65 percent of the allocated time could be rented out — which, according to Sid Segal, the assistant director of ancillary services, was a “very high” probability. Heck, if all the time was rented out, a tidy profit could be made.

The notions of possible profit and not having to lease out at least $5,500 a year for ice activities in rinks that were “not meeting the demand that exists for winter activities” made it quite appealing to those on the athletics side. A personal ice rink would also have given way for a possibility of a varsity hockey team.

All systems go, right?

Not quite. Although the plan was moving forward, it was speculated that many in both faculty and the BoG weren’t too keen on the idea. One report on the feasibility mentioned that, “although the demand for an ice facility is very high and most desirable, there is some question as to the priority of this facility as compared with the artificial field turf,” another necessary athletic thing that needed a lot of money.

But the most important people turned off by the plan were the private business owners. The BoG had pledged over $600,000, but needed still about $300,000 more. It was proposed that they raise funds through public appeal.

In a survey of prominent BC businessmen, SFU found that most were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea, and thought it unlikely they would find willing donors. Jim Pattison, one of those surveyed,  was “not in the least interested,” and thought that there was no need at SFU with the surrounding ice rinks in the area. As well, he refused to tie his Vancouver Blazers — a short-lived member of the one-time competitor of the NHL, the WHA — with SFU.

Former Canucks owner Cyrus McLean also was found to be “generally very negative about the whole operation,” calling the project cheap and something few would want to invest in.

The project was cheap, had too few seats, and was planned to run all months long when most rinks shut down for the summer. McLean also noted that in previous attempts to build athletic facilities, they had “encountered resistance from the business community about funding a sports facility rather than concentrating on funding exclusively for academic facilities.”

So public funding no longer seemed like such a great idea. How else could they raise funds? The report had a simple idea: “Have students contribute a portion of the money to show their interest.” And thus began student involvement — and the end of the ice rink.

Initially Suart pushed for a referendum to be mailed out in October asking, “Do you or

do you not want an ice rink?” However, the council balked at the question, and instead tabled the referendum for February.

SFU Athletics came out in full force pushing the ice rink, promoting the yes vote with the slogan, “Ice is Nice.” In The Peak of the day, an anonymous writer wrote, “Hockey-playing mannequins are to be placed in the hallways with signs pleading for ice. Athletes have apparently been the recipients of propaganda spiels designed to insure a packed general meeting.”

That’s not to say that the anti-ice side wasn’t vocal, either. The Peak during this era had a habit of printing blatantly anti-ice articles like the one mentioning “propaganda spiels,” usually by anonymous writers.

Notably, a rally was held before the referendum, which brought together all the ‘no’ voters.

After the campaign, some even accused biased members of the SFSS of making the conditions favourable for a win for the ‘no’ side. According to a letter to the editor by Ian McGregor, “political maneuvering” by chairman JP Daem avoided a “promised 40 minutes of debate,” before “some idiot called the question” — resulting in the end of the debate.

In the end, the rink proposal probably didn’t fall apart because of overbearing campaign slogans or biased editorials ran in The Peak. The project was considered hackneyed from the start by many potential investors.

Students were paying a $5 tuition increase — a larger sum of money in the day — for the newly-built University Centre Building (now part of the Maggie Benston Centre). Many were under the belief that if they voted down the rink, their tuitions would decreased with the fee increase no longer needed — something that, according to The Peak, didn’t happen.

At the time, library budgets were being slashed, and dental insurance was a prevalent issue. Many students thought there were more important things to spend their money on.

This wasn’t the last time SFU nearly had an ice rink, though. When the 2010 Olympics were announced, SFU was initially awarded the Olympic Oval before it was instead put in Richmond.

However, the consequences still linger to this day: hockey was at the time considered for varsity status. Instead, SFU Hockey folded in the 1970s, until it was brought back as a club in 2004.

When McGregor concluded his letter to the editor: “It may be a long time, if ever, before SFU can have their own ice rink,” who knew how right he’d be?