Some of the highlights from the past year at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, managed from OVG360, was shared at Moose Jaw City Council on Monday night. 

One of the big milestones at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in 2023 was a change in leadership. Ryan MacIvor stepped down as General Manager after four years with the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Shaunna Fritzler took over the position. 

It was also the first year that the facility returned to full normalcy with concerts, sports and events. The facility hosted everything from sold-out concerts to sports tournaments to community gatherings. 

"It was a very exciting year, bringing new events to the community, creating legacy, and it was also a year of transition and of change. The report highlights and outlines the continued hard work of the team at MJEC, leading to a successful year of hockey, curling and more," Fritzler told city council. 

Some of these events included Festival of Trees Gala, Greek Night, Touch A Truck, Sask Skate Regionals, World Para Ice Hockey and a Saskatchewan Rush National Lacrosse League pre-season game. 

The facility saw an increase of 700 booking hours in 2023 compared to 2022 for its banquet and meeting spaces. The Moose Jaw Events Centre had 2,384.5 booking hours in 2023. 

The arena saw 1,208 ice bookings in 2023 and 2,202.5 hours. The Warriors played 37 games in the Moose Jaw Events Centre in 2023 where they made it into the second round of the playoffs. The team averaged 2,908 paid tickets per game, The Moose Jaw AAA Winmar Warriors played 28 games with 7,230 paid attendance in 2023. 

The big event was the World Para Ice Hockey Championship that took place for the first time ever in Canada at the Moose Jaw Events Centre last summer. Moose Jaw welcomed teams from Canada, USA, South Korea, Czechia, Norway, China, Germany and Italy over the two-week event. The event left a legacy as the Moose Jaw Events Centre now has a para hockey kit. In total, over 15,000 people attended the games, 10,040 meals were served, 275 athletes, officials, delegates and support staff came to Moose Jaw and stayed 2,500 hotel nights. 

"In just over 70 days, the events centre team executed the plan to welcome eight teams from around the world. The economic impact on the community aside, hosting this event left a legacy for both the building and our community," said Fritzler. 

The Moose Jaw Curling Centre was also a hub of activity. Over 210 league nights took place over the course of the year. The curling centre hosted 12 bonspiels with over 700 curlers. These bonspiels included the CAF Spiel, the Women's Tour Spiel and the Youth Fun Spiel.  

"The curling centre remains vibrant and active, with curling nights continuing to be very busy with 11 leagues running through six days a week. Our bonspiel weekends increased by three over the previous season, with the club hosting the mixed doubles Super Siers for the first time, an event which is scheduled again for this fall," said Fritzler. 

The Moose Jaw Curling Centre hosted the Provincial Wheelchair Curling Skills Camp in November before the 2023 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship won by local rink Gil Dash, Marie Wright, Moose Gibson and Darwin Bender. 

Through Sasktix.ca, there was about $5.2 million in gross ticket sales. This was from 297 ticketed events with 336,699 tickets sold. 

A few more fun facts from the food and beverage sector at the Moose Jaw Events Centre last year: 

  • 387,014 ounces of draft beer were sold, or the equivalent of 197 kegs. 
  • 17 bathtubs (10,855 bottles) of Dasani water were sold. 
  • 14,238 feet or 4.33 kilometres or 36 city blocks of Twizzlers were sold. 
  • 112,000 ounces or 7,000 pounds of french fries were sold. 

Food and beverage had a gross revenue of $1.7 million in 2023. 

Through events like the Festival of Trees Gala, FMX World Tour Pit Party, Touch A Truck, the Tim Horton's Smile Cookies campaign and the Kinsmen Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, $38,875 was raised to support the community last year through events at the Moose Jaw Events Centre. 

Financially, the Moose Jaw Events Centre ran a deficit of $406,105 compared to a budgeted deficit of $432,732 and had a cost recovery of 77.32 per cent.