BOWDEN - Arena manager Gary Pion is suggesting that the town get back into the rink board advertising game.
During a council meeting, Pion gave a presentation on the matter.
"If everybody went with the one-year contract, that's what we'd bring in that first year: $10,000; $2,000 as well for the installation. And then of course to carry it all the way over, we pay $6,000 for the first year under a one-year, $3,700 on the three-year contract if everybody went that way," he said. You're receiving $13,500 of revenue on one-year contracts in three years."
"I've had this idea for a lot of years," he said. "I've talked to pretty much every CAO (chief administrative officer) and not got further than that."
"There's not an arena around us anymore that doesn't have advertising boards," Pion added. "I'm sure that if we were to go forward with that we could use the monies that it brings in for the small projects that we have inside the arena itself.
"It's also a great way for us to connect with our local business community, with our guests and our user groups."
Pion said he's researched the matter quite thoroughly.
"I've also talked to our business users and they are all quite excited and say it's about time," he said.
"We could offer rental contracts of one-year terms at $500 per year or three-year terms with annual billing of $400 per year. That's per board."
Councillors indicated general support for the idea.
"It started in Sweden and all of those Canadians thought it looked horrible. Remember that? Now it's all over the world," Coun. Wayne Milaney said.
There has been signage on the Igloo boards for a long time, but the town has not received revenue for those ads for years, councillors noted.
Coun. Randy Brown received some ribbing because those signs included one for the liquor store he used to own.
"So you're not still paying for that," Coun. Kerry Kelm asked.
"Not (since) like, 2000," Brown replied.
"So you owe us 17 years (of payments)," Mayor Robb Stuart said, sparking laughter.
Brown later said he paid for that ad up until 2006, when he sold the liquor store.
