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By Shaun Penner

Vipers looking to build new dressing room at Sexsmith Arena

Mar 6, 2019 | 11:40 AM

The Sundown Oilfield Services Sexsmith Vipers are hoping to have a new dressing room for the start of next season.

The Junior ‘B’ Hockey Club is looking to build the new room behind the player’s bench on the south side of Sexsmith Arena, moving away from the current room, which is under the bleachers on the north side of the building.

“Our old dressing room is 25-years-old,” said Vipers President Kelly Wilson. “It’s not in the greatest shape. We’ve fixed it up numerous times, but where it’s situated… it’s not very friendly to expand it.”

This is something the team has wanted for quite some time, being granted a $12,500 Capital Assistance Grant from the County of Grande Prairie in November of 2016. The team’s management at the time never sent back the conditional grant agreement and the funds were never given to the team. A big reason for that is that the team had fallen behind financially and were not going to be able to go forward with the project.

Move to present day, and Wilson and the team have gone back to County Council and were granted the $12,500 at Monday’s meeting, with the funds coming from the County’s grant reserves.

Wilson noted to council that the $12,500 given by County would be matched by the team, with $25,000 coming from the Sexsmith Agricultural Society and $30,000 coming from sponsorships. Sponsors, Wilson notes, have played a large role in getting the teams finances in order, as well as funding projects like this.

“We’ve found a lot of new sponsors,” said Wilson. “We’ve got them to commit for a longer term, so financially we are sitting actually quite well.”

“Can we afford to do this dressing room without sponsorships? Absolutely not. But we are sitting fine as far as operational funds go.”

Wilson explains that team does still need to canvas for more sponsorships to fully fund the estimated $100,000 project, but notes the project is well on its way to getting done.

He also wanted to take time to thank the team’s major sponsors over the last season, such as Sundown Oilfield Services, UFA Petroleum, Semerra and Nordic Energy, for helping the team operate smoothly throughout the season.

Wilson is hoping that the new dressing room will be completed for the beginning of the 2019-2020 NWJHL season.

by Shaun Penner