We continue to receive reports from arena staff that teams are showing up way too early for their games and/or practices. In one case 3 hours early. We are told that coaches are telling players to show up early. Please remind all your coaches, out of town teams, parents, all your members that access to dressing rooms is only permitted 30 minutes before your ice time and must leave within 30 minutes after the ice ends. Many arenas do not have the rooms available to allow teams to show up an hour or two early. Arena staff at all arenas will be enforcing this rule strictly by keeping dressing rooms locked until you’re permitted to enter.

In addition, arriving early and stacking equipment bags in the lobby until allowed in the dressing room is also not a good practice. Many are running around, disrupting those on the ice or those watching. Please be mindful of this as well.

I understand it is important to properly warm up, a solution I am recommending for those that require extra time to warm up is to rent the hall if the arena has a hall attached to it and the hall is free. A flat fee of $18.75 (cleaning fee) will be charged if you wish to use the hall for warming up prior to your ice time. For example, AA or AAA game starts at 7pm. Access to the dressing room is 6:30pm. Book the hall from 5:30pm to 6:30pm for warming up, team huddle, and storing equipment bags. If you wish to use the hall for warming up, please email icebookings@greatersudbury.ca and they will secure the hall for you. Please ensure proper supervision and no kicking soccer balls, or hacky sack as this activity may damage the ceiling tiles and such in some halls with low ceilings.

Lastly, please remember to only email icebookings@greatersudbury.ca when requesting ice or making changes to your contract. Sending requests directly to booking clerks causes issues if they happen to be away and we need to action your requests in a timely manner.

Thanks for your cooperation,

All the best,
Jody