Frustration surrounding ice rental times throughout the city continues as local leagues and associations get shuffled around.
Randy Hocko, convener for the Windsor Hockey League and the Windsor Essex Women's Hockey League, says ice times for both of his leagues have been moved around after city council made the decision to move curling to the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex.
Hocko says those organizations using the ice at the four city owned facilities - the Capri Complex, the WFCU Centre, Adie Knox Herman Arena, and the Forest Glade Arena - were shuffled around based on seniority.
Both of Hocko's leagues previously ran out of the Forest Glade Arena, with the men's league playing Tuesday afternoon and evening, and the women's league playing early Sunday afternoon.
Now, the men's league will play in the late evenings at Forest Glade Arena, and the WFCU, and the women will play late Sunday afternoon and into the evening hours.
He says those in the men's league wanted to remain playing on the Tuesday.
"I had to go back to the city and actually ask them if they still had any hours on Tuesday's, which they did, but they were also very late. So I'm playing at 9:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m., and 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., at two different arenas."
Hocko says it feels like the league is going two steps back.
"The men's league was initially over at Central Park [Athletics], and then we got moved out of there and we got into the city, and we managed to get pretty close to the same hours that we had at Central Park. That was terrific, I was able to get my 12 teams rolling again, and we were doing that for the last few years, and now we're taking two steps back again."
He says he's disappointed and frustrated.
"I have to make some tough choices, I have to send it out on my teams and say 'who really wants to play?' type of idea. That's the difficult part on my standpoint for the men's league. The women's league, I don't have to do that, but I'm a little bit still concerned that they're going to have some difficulties getting players for the later hours as well."
Hocko says while there was communication with the city at the start of these conversations about moving the curlers, communication has died off since.
He says moving forward he will be looking to work with the city for future years to acquire better dates and times for his leagues.
Both leagues play from September to March.
