Committee recommends city-run model for Tbaytel Multiplex

City Council’s Quality of Life standing committee has approved a recommendation for the city to run its new indoor turf facility.

The facility, now dubbed the Tbaytel Multiplex, is slated to open in late 2026.

Third-party management models, both for-profit and not-for-profit, were considered for the $36 million building, but neither the administration nor city council expressed an appetite for outsourcing the building’s management.

A key consideration was the cost to users. While a third-party model could reduce costs to the city, concerns were expressed that those costs could be offloaded to consumers, who might have to pay more to use the facility.

Because the facility is taxpayer-funded, councillors and stakeholders alike weren’t interested in an outside operator collecting additional excess profits from users.

By comparison, Kelly Robertson, Commissioner of Community Services, assured the committee that she believed “the type of activities that are going to be offered through this facility are going to be affordable and accessible to all ages and abilities.”

City Manager John Collin maintained that even with services offered at an affordable rate, the facility could still achieve a balanced budget.

Preferential treatment was another factor in the recommendation. A for-profit model might incentivize the facility to prioritize booking large groups, at the expense of many smaller groups that also hope to book turf time.

Collin pointed out that the city’s allocation policy for ice rinks could guide how the city manages the turf facility.

City administration has also recommended creating a reserve fund for the multiplex, which would put aside $650,000 each year.

Collin explained that having a reserve fund would help the city be more prepared, “so that when there is a mid-life cycle renovation that needs to occur, or an end-of-life replacement to the project, we don’t find ourselves in the situation… where we’re trying to figure out where the money’s coming from.”

He added that should the multiplex ever run a surplus, any extra money could go into that reserve fund.