SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
Rolling Hills, Tilley and Duchess have entered the 2025 Kraft Hockeyville contest but support is still required from the public by March 2nd at 11:59 p.m. (9:59 p.m. Mountain Time) in order to reach the next stage.
The annual program, which is now in its 19th year, will award the top submission with $250,000 for their arena and an NHL pre-season game for either the competing or an alternative arena.
Through the program $5.1 million has been provided to 101 communities to address the growing costs associated with maintaining or upgrading aging sports and recreation infrastructure.
Rolling Hills is looking to replace their chiller and condenser which are worth about the total of the grand prize.
“A lot of people probably don’t really care about the NHL team because it’s such a small facility,” said Darcy Hemsing, president of the Rolling Hills Ag. Society.
The group hopes to win the funds to replace the equipment to help keep their arena alive.
“It’s the smaller communities that they say keep Brooks and all these other bigger facilities going.
“If you don’t have the facilities in the smaller communities to attract the people and keep it going, you’re going to lose a lot,” Hemsing said.
The local arena is not only used by the residents but also rented by teams from Calgary, Fort McMurray, Edmonton and Saskatoon for between eight and 10 tournaments each winter.
And bookings have already started for the 2025-26 season.
“We bring in a lot. On the average you get six teams that are booking between 80 to 100 rooms in Brooks.
“They’re all out of town teams. We have no local teams from Brooks which really is disappointing.”
Fundraising for the construction of the Rolling Hills arena started in 1972, ground was broken for the volunteer-built arena in 1988 and it opened to skaters in 1992.
In 1988 the hamlet received a building for the ice plant and the plant itself was purchased for $100,000.
The plant had been a back-up at the Calgary Olympics for the opening and closing ceremonies at McMahon Stadium.
Representatives in Tilley would like to add heat and changing rooms to their arena.
Their story submission states that improving the heating would improve the rink substantially.
One person posted that the Tilley arena has a running joke that it is the coldest rink in Alberta.
The heaters cannot be turned on unless the outside temperature is at least -15C so that the roof sweating doesn’t create droplet lines on the ice.
There are no submissions for the Duchess arena.
As of Monday 361 arenas from across Canada, including about 100 from Alberta, have submitted applications.
Now comes the public input.
By March 2 add something the Duchess, Tilley and/or Rolling Hills arena pages at the Kraft Hockeyville site. Submissions help the arena become a top four finalist.
One note per person is allowed and it is worth one point, up to 15 reactions to a photo or story submission per person per arena are allowed for one point each, adding a photo is worth three points with a total of five photos per person per arena and the story submission is worth 10 points with one approved submission per arena.
The judging will take place on March 3 and the Top Four finalists will be announced on March 15.
Arena fans can start voting on April 4 at 9 a.m. ET (7 a.m. Mountain) until 5 p.m. ET (3 p.m. Mountain) on April 5, which is the same day the winner will be announced.
The arena that receives the most votes will be deemed the winner.
Arenas finishing second, third and fourth will receive $25,000.
