Oct 16, 2020 | Rick Stevens | 2378 views
President's Update
Hello Orangeville Minor Hockey families,
I would like to share an update regarding our hockey in Orangeville. Our programs are moving along well, we have the kids on the ice and having fun. Our traditional season is different this year but when we walk through the arena the kids seem to be having fun and that's what our program is for.
A few other associations in harder hit areas of the pandemic have either shut down or had to go back to 10 on the ice. If we keep doing what we are doing we should be good to keep progressing. Thank you for obeying the health and arena rules.
We are hearing negative comments from some parents about the fees and ice times. We tried to lower the fees to assist our Flyers families but at the end of the day, we couldn't. We lost sponsorship revenue, ice time expenses went up again this year, insurance. Everything went up and we did everything we could to keep the expenses at par with last year and our neighbours. Our largest expense this year comes from having the smaller rosters. We used to put 14 or more on a roster and now we are down to 9 or 10 which creates a lot more ice time.
We have tried to save money in the areas we could, we did not replace Joanne Wilson, our office administrator, our referees association have agreed to lower the referee game fees for this season and we are saving by not purchasing new jerseys this year.
The ice time, our non-competitive teams will be on the ice approximately twice per week. Our competitive teams will get approximately 6 hours of practice hours per month plus their game schedule(s). We know teams used to be on the ice a lot more but we have asked the competitive teams not to rent additional ice this year to keep the teams expenses as low as possible. We know at some of the levels the players, parents and coaches want to hit the ice as much as possible but this season is quite different, so again, we ask that everyone enjoy what we have during these unpredictable times.
Thank you,
Rick Stevens
President
Orangeville Minor Hockey