Ever since it opened in January 2014, the size of the playing surface at Kin 1 arena has been fixed at Olympic dimensions.
The rink at the $16 million facility was set at 200-feet (61-metre) long and 100-feet (30.5-metre) wide, which is 15 feet (4.5 metres) wider than a standard NHL-sized hockey rink.
Following the Canadian Home Builders Association home show, April 25-27, the boards at Kin 1 will for the first time be moved in to create a standard-sized rink which will remain in that configuration until midsummer when the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association season ends.
The senior league requested the change. Although the PGSLA opens its season next Wednesday at the Coliseum, the league will eventually shift its games to Kin 1.
"We'll make the rink NHL size just for the lacrosse season and after the BCNE fair (Aug. 12-16)we'll move it back to Olympic size and put it back in for ice," said Wade Loukes, the city's manager of community arenas.
"This year we have a lacrosse provincials coming in and they want all the arenas to be on the same sized rink."
The city will host the B.C. Lacrosse Association midget (A1, A2, B and C) provincial championships, July 22-26 at the Kin Centre.
This past February, city staff removed the glass and netting in place for hockey games at Kin 1 to make for a better spectator experience at the Canada Winter Games short track speed skating and figure skating events.
Loukes said it is more labour-intensive to remove the upright stanchions which provide support for the glass panels at Kin 1, compared to the suction system in place at CN Centre. For that reason, he estimates it will probably take a couple of days work to reconfigure the Kin 1 boards instead of a one-day operation.
User groups like the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club and the male and female midget Cougars hockey teams prefer the wider ice surface and Loukes said they will get skate on the bigger ice surface again next season.
"It's different, and in discussions we've had with other user groups there are other arenas to choose from and the Olympic-sized rink fits a lot of needs," said Loukes. "We look at it on a year-by-year basis. This will be a good test for us to see how long it takes to move the boards and how long it takes to rebuild the ice."
