Second rink last milestone for Rec Director Mike Schwean
May 19, 2026, 2:51 pm
Ashley Bochek, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Moosomin’s Rec Director Mike Schwean has tirelessly led the Town of Moosomin Recreation Department for the past 40 years. He sees a second rink in Moosomin as his last major goal and one he thought was unattainable due to rising capital costs with building a new rink.
He says the community needs a second ice surface to accommodate the growing teams in Moosomin Minor Hockey.
“It’s exciting to be getting another rink. We are short of ice, we had 10 to 12 teams that were having to go out of town for ice this past season, so certainly this will help that. It’s great. It’s an opportunity for all of our teams to practice in town so this will just better everyone. So certainly there is a demand there. I think it’ll be fantastic.”
Schwean says Moosomin Minor Hockey has added a handful of teams over the past few years.
“Our rink is so heavily, heavily used, and more and more teams are having to travel out of town—it seems like more teams, or numbers are with minor hockey and probably the real jump for us was three years ago, when girls had their own teams. So all of a sudden it jumped up by four teams and that really put us in a difficult spot in terms of ice time. Then certainly, we were thrilled to have our Steelhawks last year, but again, that that added some more pressure.”
He explains a second rink had been mentioned years ago to help reduce the pressure of available ice time.
“It’s something we’ve thought about in the back of our minds for five years or so, but dollars were always the issue. Municipally, we weren’t in a position to run another rink, but certainly with the CBA’s help, they’re really shouldering the weight of it.”
Economic benefits to community
Schwean explains the revenue dollars a second rink would bring to Moosomin and surrounding area.
“When we did our economic study back in Covid, I think it translated to $3.5 million the existing rink in new dollars into the community. So the second rink opens up different things, whether it’s hockey tournaments or or even other big events. So between the two rinks, we would be around $7.5 million plus dollars into the local economy, new dollars. It’s not just something that provides ice time to kids. It also plays a big role in the economics of the community.
“We get a lot of calls from Regina, Brandon and Winnipeg teams wanting to meet to practice or play in the middle, whether it’s hockey or ringette, and we can never accommodate them. So certainly, this is something else that we have a lot of opportunity to do. Which produces a lot of money back into the economy.”
Schwean says he never thought a second rink this soon was possible until the meeting earlier this year. “I didn’t know how we’d ever do it. The only way we would ever do it, I thought, is if we could put on a couple major fundraisers and then get a federal-provincial grant that would pay for two-thirds of it. The foundation was not something I’d ever considered.
“We had a meeting about the rink in January, and I’ve never seen anything move with that kind of speed between donors and the foundation idea. I was going into that meeting thinking we’ll be meeting for the next two years just to figure out how to go forward and it was like two minutes. To go that fast in all the years I’ve done this, whether it was the pool or the convention center, nothing has ever gone at this speed before.”
Operate alongside Mike Schwean Arena
Rec Director Schwean states operational costs of the new rink will be covered by the town along with the old rink.
“The town would take responsibility of running it, the operations of it, and the revenues and expenses of it. I think the big difference would be—because this rink will probably have a lot more energy efficient components to it—we would put the ice in a month earlier than the old rink and then have the old rink to have ice November 1. So there’s savings that way as well. Our old rink’s 50th anniversary is in 2028 so it’s not the most efficient in every way. Then the new rink would allow us to keep it in until April—if we had programming and revenue to cover that.”
He adds, “We have a lot of kids in minor hockey and figure skating coming here to use our programs, our facilities. I think it speaks tremendously for the community. Certainly when people think about the economics of a new rink, obviously it’ll cost a bit to run the second rink, but again, the economic return is huge. We can run events while still having kids play in the other rink or we can host big events and have both rinks going. We can run summer events, it just adds a whole new avenue of opportunities. For example, we can now run a curling event such as Southern Mens or Southern Ladies and still keep the ice in the other rink. It’s certainly something that will produce dollars for the community.”
Dream coming true
Schwean has advocated for and built up Moosomin’s Recreation facilities and programs over the past 40 years. He says a second rink has always been a dream.
“I’ll retire within the next four years or so. I always wanted a new rink and that was going to be my last big thing to be involved with, and then I just didn’t see it happening, so I’d kind of given up on it. So for me, it’s pretty special. I grew up in the rink, so I think it is a special way for me to finish. It’ll be about 40 years with the town. So it’s special for me.”
He says the community is welcome to call him with questions regarding the new rink.
“I hope that a lot of people in the community are going to be excited when this is announced. I know there will be some that have concerns, and certainly if anyone has those concerns, they’re welcome to call me. I am more than happy to talk about it with them, but I think once everybody gets a chance to digest the economics of it, digest the community return of it, I think it’ll be something that is really well received in the community.”
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