Crosslink County Sportsplex. Photo Credit: Shane Clausing

By Shane Clausing

Arena Guidelines

New behaviour guidelines established for all Grande Prairie area arenas

Oct 3, 2020 | 7:00 AM

New behaviour guidelines have been implemented at all Grande Prairie Regional Recreation facilities as of October 1.

The new guidelines that have been implemented are meant to create consistent standards for groups and individuals, regardless of what arena within the region they are attending.

Krista Schuett is the Grande Prairie Regional Recreation Committee’s Coordinator, and she says that getting these rules implemented across the region was important to everyone who runs the facilities on a daily basis.

“We are now going to be having a consistent approach to behavior under the seven partners of the GPRRC. Specifically, we have outlined user contact, controlled substances, signs and food and beverage in the guidelines and then we drill it down from there.”

“We hosted a regional ice managers meeting in August,” said Schuett. “What we heard from the group collectively is it that behavior has been an ongoing issue and we are just looking at putting in guidelines to assist facility managers and operators moving forward.”

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Some of those new rules that have been implemented by the GPRRC include banning the use of profanity, aggressive and disrespectful behavior from players, coaches or spectators and not allowing food near the playing surface.

“There has never been regional guidelines prior to this,” explained Schuett. “Each facility has always had their own rules and had them posted in whatever fashion they’ve seemed fit. We put this together to look at what are some outcomes and some things we can to collectively to help.”

Schuett says that there has always been rules in place at the seven arenas within the region, however this partnership and these new guidelines makes it so that all visitors to each rink knows the new rules clearly.

The new guidelines issued by the GPRRC are as listed:

Controlled Substances (Alcohol and Cannabis)

• Consumption or presence of controlled substances of any kind by participants and/or spectators in the facility is prohibited.
• Alcoholic beverages are not permitted in the facility unless specifically approved in writing and subject to compliance with applicable municipal, provincial or federal regulations.
• Smoking tobacco products, vaping or consumption of cannabis is not permitted in the facility.

User Conduct

• Profanity, aggressive and disrespectful behaviour from players, coaches or spectators is prohibited.
• Spitting is prohibited anywhere in the facility.
• Users must vacate ice and dressing rooms in accordance with the facility’s policy.
• All guidelines provided by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, must be adhered to at all times.

Banners, Signs and Clothing

• Signs, posters, clothing or messages with explicit language, profanity or derogatory characterization directed toward any person or groups are prohibited.
• Signs cannot be posted in or attached to the facility without prior approval.

Food and Beverage

• Food is not permitted on any playing surface.
• Glass containers are prohibited.
• All users must honour food service contractual arrangements specific to the facility.

According to Schuett, it will be up to each arena to decide how they would like to communicate their new guidelines. She says that rinks are able to post the new guidelines on their website, while some could also choose to add signage of the rules inside the rink.

“We tried to make them as simple as possible,” said Schuett. “We hope that people will read them and maybe even sometimes, just use it as a self-check to outline yourself.”