The Swan City Hockey Association is asking the City of Grande Prairie to add at least some of the suggested renovations to Revolution Place to its list of “shovel ready projects” recently sent to the province. The SCHA, which operates the Grande Prairie Storm hockey club, says the biggest need they see for the building comes in the form of expanded seating and box seat installation.
Storm VP Chris Millsap says the installation of seats on the east side of the building would not only support larger attendance at Storm games, but it would provide further opportunities to increase advertising revenue and other sources of income during the season.
“A lot of use and a lot of concerts we are losing to the Dawson Creek facility, which doesn’t need to happen,” he argues.
Recently, the provincial government asked municipalities to let them know what could move ahead right away if funding is allocated, in an effort to help kickstart the local economy post-COVID-19.
Millsap says for the number of events held in the arena since the early 1990s, it has held up well but he believes the time has come to take it to the next level.
“That building has had nothing of significance done to its since 1995 and the potential is there for it to be a first-class facility,” he says. “We’re very interested in trying to push that along for the good of the building as a whole and of course the good of the hockey team.”
He adds the expanded seating area would be built above and around the concession stand area which is currently occupying the space. The estimated cost of the renovation is around $1 million, and construction, according to Millsap, would be complete by December if it started soon.