ManitobaDozens of minor hockey teams in Winnipeg are scrambling to find ice time next month after being swept out of Southdale Community Centre by a film production.About 100 hours of activities will be lost by rink closures, including 85 hours of hockeyCBC News · Posted: Dec 11, 2025 10:11 AM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Curling stones are scheduled to replace hockey pucks on the Southdale Community Centre rinks next month, creating problems for organizers of a number of other activities that will be displaced. (Darren Bernhardt/CBC)Dozens of minor hockey teams in Winnipeg are scrambling to find ice time next month after being swept out of Southdale Community Centre by a film production.Hockey Winnipeg, the non-profit organization that manages youth hockey in the city, is accusing Southdale, a publicly funded facility, of putting private enterprise and profit over people and community.The feature film being shot, called Sticks and Stones, is about American curler John Shuster and his underdog team’s journey to winning the 2018 Olympic gold medal — the first U.S. team to win curling gold.Filming began around the city last month and is expected to wrap up in mid-January.CBC News has reached out to the Southdale Community Centre and representatives of the film production for comment, but has not yet heard back.The City of Winnipeg owns the facility, but it’s managed by a community board, city spokesperson Julie Dooley said in an email.Southdale’s west rink will be closed from Jan. 3-23 and the east rink will be closed from Jan. 12-16. (Google Street View)”Our special events office does sometimes liaise with the industry to find suitable locations for filming. However, we were not involved in scouting this location,” Dooley wrote.”Any questions about operational impacts of filming on a non-city-run facility would need to be directed to the facility operator.”Southdale has two indoor rinks. The west rink will be closed from Jan. 3-23 and the east one will be closed from Jan. 12-16, Hockey Winnipeg said.Hockey Winnipeg, in a statement on its website on behalf of the St. Boniface Minor Hockey Association and the Hockey Winnipeg High Performance Council, said the closures will result in the loss of about 100 hours of scheduled activities at the facility — about 85 of those being hockey-related during the peak period of the season.”We strongly urge all involved parties to reconsider the filming timeline to one that is far less disruptive,” the post said.”In publicly funded community centres, youth sports and community programs should not be displaced for private enterprise.”More than 60 teams, from grassroots U7 house league to elite U18 AAA, will be affected, the post said.The closures will also affect private development programs, high school hockey programs, adult recreational hockey, figure skating, learn-to-skate programming, free skates and numerous other user groups as ice across the city and surrounding area will have to be repurposed, Hockey Winnipeg said.Securing ice times elsewhere will result in increased costs, added burdens on families due to increased travel and administrative strains on organizations to reschedule programming.”While Hockey Winnipeg can relocate and reschedule all games to other facilities, doing so will come at the expense of practices and development programs,” the post said.”It will also mean games with additional travel and potentially at arenas outside of St. Boniface. Beyond that still, it will require some games to be played in facilities that are not well equipped to support competitive play.”Hockey Winnipeg said it’s not opposed to the use of community centres as filming locations, “when done responsibly and collaboratively.””However, it is disappointing that this project was scheduled without regard for the significant impact on community sport programming,” the post said.Hockey Winnipeg has communicated its concerns to Southdale Community Centre and is asking families for patience and understanding as its volunteers work through “this significant and unexpected challenge,” the post said.With files from Josh Crabb
Filming of curling movie draws ire of Winnipeg hockey community for hogging ice time
