New recreational centre opens in Martensville

Many young athletes in Martensville are welcoming a brand new recreational centre.

The facility has multiple ice surfaces including a 900-seat arena, a rock climbing wall, a FIFA (International Federation of Association Football)-sized soccer pitch, and more.

This is a soft launch of the centre, as the soccer field still requires some work before opening to the public.

“The biggest piece is … that the turf is not in … that’s hopefully happening in November,” Kent Muench, Mayor of Martensville said. “We’re looking at probably early January when it’s fully commissioned.”

The rink and wall climbing are both open and ready to go.

Rock Climbing wall in Martensville Recreational Centre. (Will Mandzuk/650CKOM)

It has been a long journey for this facility. Muench said he was happy to see it almost ready.

“It’s a dream come true, we’ve been working on this for over a decade,” he said. “The looks on people’s faces, you can tell they’re pretty excited.”

Last year the city announced the start of construction on the facility. The initial price tag sat around $44.5 million but since the facility isn’t fully complete, the final cost of everything is still unknown.

There is also a plan to add two more ice surfaces in the future when they are needed.

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Martensville did fundraise a good portion of money. It also received financial support from the provincial and federal governments.

“We got support from close to 50 organizations, communities, and Indigenous groups,” Muench said. “Through that process we worked with the federal and provincial governments as well to try to understand how we could make this a regional facility that would leverage the funds.”

Muench said it was important to get help from the government because it would have been impossible for Martensville to be able to raise enough money to pay for everything themselves.

Roxane Melnyk, director of recreation and community services for the City of Martensville, said this facility will help fill a major need the city has been missing.

“The arena is booked already, we’re probably … between 70 to 90 percent booked,” Melnyk said. “The field house has tournaments booked for January and February, it’s so exciting.”

Melnyk has been with the city for 11 months and she said she couldn’t wait to work on this project.

“I was super excited to have the ability to become part of this team and actually come in and see the dream move forward,” she said.

Retail and other businesses can also be found at the new recreational centre. A mini sticks arena will also be made for the younger siblings of hockey players.