SUNDRE – Parents and guardians who might find themselves on the road for work may no longer have to worry about missing out on their children’s hockey games.
Courtesy of the local minor hockey group, the community arena is hoping to get some upgrades including a connection to an increasingly popular subscription service called LiveBarn.
Amber Jenkins, former vice-president of the Sundre Minor Hockey Association who is now serving her first term as president, recently told the Albertan that the Sundre Arena will soon be able to broadcast games through the service.
“It’s like cameras in the arena that you can watch the games on,” said Jenkins, adding the association spearheaded the initiative.
The feed that will be broadcast from the cameras can be viewed from anywhere else provided the user has a login.
“You could go on your phone and you can watch it from anywhere in the world. It’s very popular,” said Jenkins.
LiveBarn further offers the option to record not only games but even practices, which provides footage that can later be reviewed as part of an additional tool coaches can use for player development, she said.
Asked how much installing LiveBarn cameras would cost, Jenkins said the service will actually be “free for us to install as people have to subscribe to it so they get that money.”
As to whether other organizations such as the Sundre Skating Club might also be able to broadcast for example their annual ice carnival, she responded, “It will be available for all the user groups.”
But before those cameras could be mounted, town-owned facilities like the arena first needed to be connected to the high-speed fibre optic broadband network that was installed last year.
“We have to have really good internet,” she said. “(LiveBarn) will be installed once the town gets their new fibre optic internet in there.”
The municipality is looking into getting town-owned facilities such as the arena connected to high-speed internet to facilitate such broadcasts, but a timeline as to when that might happen has not yet been confirmed.
The association was also pleased to announce the acquisition of a never-before used score clock.
“Sundre minor hockey purchased a new score clock this year for the arena out of our own money,” she said.
“The other one was so old you couldn’t get a light bulb for it.”
That left the association concerned about the possibility of being left unable to play in the event of any problems with the aging score clock.
“If it had broke in the middle of January, we’d be hooped for two months because you can’t play without one,” she said, adding that’s about how long it took to obtain the new clock, which was bought through Big Hill Services & Arena Supplies Ltd. near Cochrane for $11,571 including the cost of installation and has a warranty for several years.
“It’s brand spanking new,” she said. “Never used – it came out of the crate.”
The association covered the cost from its own reserves without fundraising, she added.
“We had to use our own money,” she said. “We’re hoping to get some sponsors.”
Meanwhile, the 2024-25 season is shaping up.
Danielle Bird is now the association’s vice-president with James Clayton serving as treasurer and Rebecca Rock filling the role of secretary.
There as of earlier this month were about 110 players registered, with teams fielded in every age category from U7 on up to U18, including two U9s.
While the registration period is already over and the teams are largely maxed out, Jenkins said new players might yet be considered on a case-by-case basis but that no promises could be made.
