Windsor's curling community could soon be getting the boot once again after only a year of play at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex (CPRC) in south Windsor.
Curlers were relocated to Capri after in 2023 city council voted to end curling at Roseland, following an administration report that the facility was not financially viable.
A report headed to the June 9 council meeting suggests converting the curling rink at Capri back to a skating ice pad to accommodate user groups that have been displaced due to the recent fire at the WFCU Centre.
The April 28 fire caused $1-million in damage, namely to the AM800 rink, which is home to the Riverside Minor Hockey Association.
City officials state repairs are expected to take between 10 months and up to a year.
Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis says this proposal puts the future of curling in Windsor in jeopardy.
"Let's be absolutely clear on this, if city council displaces curlers, they're never coming back, the city will never have curling again, I really believe that," Francis said.
Francis says he understands the unusual circumstances are due to the fire at the WFCU Centre, however curling and hockey are now being pitted against one another with council in the middle.
"That's bad policy, if we had good policy and we had more a good plan moving forward that increased capacity and allowed for curling, and allowed for hockey, council wouldn't be asked to make a very difficult decision," Francis said. "I certainly won't be supporting it because I think we can't displace curlers even after we told them we would never do that once we made the changes at Capri."
He says maybe it's not too late to explore the construction of a standalone curling facility where council wouldn't have to decide between the two user groups.
"Quite frankly, a standalone curling facility at Roseland, on the Roseland property footprint ,would prevent that happening ever, so we'll see what happens on June 9, but I'm certainly not pleased with what's being presented to us," Francis said.
The curling community was quick to react to the news.
Terry Fink, chair of Save Curling in the City of Windsor says they were blindsided by the report and fear, if approved, could impact the sport in the city going forward.
"We have to begin to think about it from a leisure and a recreation stand point, is that people have leisure and recreation, and if something ends they'll find something else to do, and it may be very difficult and challenging to bring the volume of curlers back after a year of not curling," Fink said.
He says the group just finished their first year of playing at Capri, and increased players by 50 to 60 people, to 400-450 players.
Fink believes the report is incomplete and is asking council to defer it while other options are explored.
"We do have a private recreation complex on Central Avenue, did the city investigate renting ice for either the curlers or for the hockey players, and the figure skaters there, I don't know, I haven't talked to that ownership, but why isn't that presented in the council report," Fink asked.
According to the report, administration reached out to surrounding municipalities to inquire about available prime ice for the 2025-2026 season, and was advised that all rinks are at or near capacity and would not be able to accommodate programming displaced from WFCU.
The ice at Capri is left vacant 74 per cent of prime-time hours according to the report, something Fink says was known to happen when they moved in.
"We all knew what the hours of curling were going to be, and it was not an issue, so I don't understand, and again here that's why we think the report is incomplete, I don't understand why that becomes a criteria for moving curling out," Fink said.
City council will meet Monday Jun. 9 at 10 a.m.
-With files from CTV Windsor's Robert Lothian