For 64 years, ever since it opened as a curling rink, the Roll-A-Dome has served as a community centre for the citizens of Prince George to gather for sports, entertainment and recreational activities.
It still serves that vital function, but once again, the future of the Roll-A-Dome is in jeopardy. It's being targeted by a commercial developer building a 243-room hotel next door that wants to level the 'Dome and turn it into parking lot.
But that won't happen without a fight. As the leader of the P.G. Dome Society, Margaret Jackson is trying to save the facility from the wrecker's ball.
"We are negotiating with the owners and they've agreed to sell us the facility and the land and we have until June 1st to come up with our business proposal that their board members can live with," said Jackson.
"Obviously, coming up with that kind of cash is not going to happen overnight. It's going to be over ($1 million), but we have some handshake verbal agreements from people in the community who want to make sizable in-kind donations to help insulate the building and improve accessibility - all the issues in our business plan we need to have addressed. So within the next two years I can see this (building) being totally different than what you see today."
The Roll-A-Dome, located on Recreation Place adjacent to the Prince George Golf and Curling Club, has two indoor arenas used for roller skating, roller derby, skateboarding, soccer, ball hockey, lacrosse, baseball, boxing, freestyle skiing, BMX riding and dog training. That indoor space gets rented for annual trade shows, antiques fairs, garage sales, and can be booked for parties, weddings and grad functions.
The 30,000-square-foot building also provides leased space for L.A. Promotions and its Family Fun Centre, an indoor play area with inflatable gyms, laser tag, and a mechanical bull. It also houses the Fitness Connection fitness centre, which offers boot camps, boxing fitness training, and cross-fit.
Jackson formed the society on Dec. 21 and on that day 70 people put down $10 to become members. The membership list is now hundreds long and continues to grow as more people learn about the pending deadline.
The Roll-A-Dome has been inspected and has no structural deficiencies but needs esthetic improvements to make it look more presentable. If the society takes over ownership, the not-for-profit group would be eligible for community grants to make improvements to washroom facilities and entranceways to make the building more wheelchair accessible.
"The Roll-A-Dome is the original community centre and I can't see it being anything but a community centre," said Jackson. "If you look at CN Centre, it's a hockey rink but it also has other activities and elements. The Roll-A-Dome is a skate rink, but it also has other activities and elements - it's like a mini-me to CN Centre."
In October 2002, a group of 27 local investors bought the Roll-A-Dome from the Prince George Golf and Curling Club for $650,000. That came after the club turned down a $1.5 million offer from a group that wanted to build a casino on the site. Since then, several owners have sold their shares and there are now 10 left in the group. Now that many of them have reached retirement age, they've reached the point where they want to get back the money they invested.
One of the owners, who spoke to The Citizen on the condition of anonymity, has agreed to sell his piece of the property, but only if the Roll-A-Dome remains where it is or gets rebuilt elsewhere.
"I wouldn't mind seeing a nice hotel sitting on that corner, but on the other hand I don't want to see a hotel there if the city is not prepared to replace the Roll-A-Dome," he said.
Because it fills so many diverse recreational needs, the facility is well-used year-round and it's attractive to user groups because rental rates are affordable. City-owned arenas and swimming pools cost taxpayers money to operate, but the privately-owned Roll-A-Dome drains nothing from the public purse, and for that reason the anonymous owner is convinced that in 13 years of private ownership the Roll-A-Dome has saved the city close to $1 million.
He wants it to remain a centrally-located recreational facility and said it would make sense for the city to help the society secure a low-interest loan to buy the building and renovate it, rather than spending $5-6 million to build a replacement at another location.
"How much did the city spend on Citizen Field (baseball diamond), and it sits empty for nine months of the year," he said. "How much is spent on soccer fields?
"You can say what you want about roller derby, but it's filled a niche for some people. They're not basketball players or volleyball players or soccer players, but they're out there getting exercise. You've got the skateboarders who come in there on Wednesday nights in the wintertime. What are you going to do with them, throw them out on the street? Not everybody can afford to play ice hockey, but kids love ball hockey."
Debbie Doherty learned how to roller skate at the Roll-A-Dome when she was a young teenager. Now, more than 40 years later, the 'Dome is home to the city's roller derby scene, which includes Jackson's daughter and granddaughter.
"We're third-generation skaters - I skated here when I was 14 or 15, my daughter Amanda Ireland (Ali Thel Weapon) plays for Rated P.G. Roller Girls and my granddaughter Acid Rain (12-year-old Reanne Ireland) is a Roller Brat, and for us to see it go would be sad," said Doherty.
"If they tear this Dome down, they will ruin everything. We will lose a lot of our fun. Not one person ever has said they will rebuild it. All they care about is their hotel, and this will become a parking lot."
Lorie Atkinson, the owner/operator of L.A. Promotions, has taken up the slack created when Bubba Baloos indoor playground shut down permanently a few years ago. Her climbing playground equipment, bouncy gyms and laser tag arena provides alternate recreational activities for kids who are not into sports. The city recently granted her a license to operate a day care, which will soon be open.
"It's centrally-located and it's big and I keep the prices as low as I can in there because a lot of people have lots of kids and they can't afford to pay much," said Atkinson.
Al Work has operated the Roll-A-Dome for 35 of his 67 years. In 2002, when the offer was on the table to sell the building and surrounding land for $1.5 million for the casino, Work spearheaded a petition to save the building and collected more than 12,000 signatures. As one of the majority owners, he also wants to sell his share of the Roll-A-Dome to the society, which would also keep him employed.
"The offer we've had from this developer (Pomeroy Group) was for $1.3 million and the land, they even claimed, is valued at $1.5 million, so we'd be getting $200,000 less than what even the buyer is valuing the land at," said Work. "If the society can buy it for less than the land value and keep the building, that's a heck of a deal and that's the way to go. If the developer gets it, it gets bulldozed over and I'm done. If the society gets it, they think I come with the building, and I would be willing to work for them."
Based on today's construction costs, Work figures it would cost more than $6 million to replace the building, and he says that would not include the land. He estimates the final replacement cost would be closer to $12 million.
"Nobody would ever do that, it's not going to get done," said Work, whose group still owes about $400,000 of the 2002 purchase price. "So the only way to go is to keep it like this.
"The city has access to money at very low interest, and they could lend it out for one per cent more than what they are getting it at and make money on the deal. The deal would be solid because (the society) would hold the mortgage on the place and the amount they would be giving them is way less than what the land is worth. There should be no way they could use the excuse that they can't do it.
"Years ago, the city borrowed money and lent it to the gas company, which was a private company, so why can't they do the same with this group?"
Work was referring to a June 2004 referendum which gave the city approval to borrow $58.6 million to finance a lease-in, lease-out agreement with Terasen Gas projected to generate nearly $25 million over the 17-year lifetime of the loan. The deal was made after Terasen asked to have the buy-out clause removed from its franchise agreement with the city, and after a previous loan proposal was rejected in a counter petition.
