Calgary roller rink closing leaves family and club with few options

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

The closure of Alberta’s last roller rink last weekend is posing a challenge for the Calgary Artistic Roller Sport Club (CARSC) to find a new space and throws a stumbling block into Strathmore local artistic roller skater Kayla-Ann Mercer’s dream of competing in the Artistic Skating World Championships one day.
Lloyds Recreation roller rink in Calgary officially closed its doors on Feb. 18 after 53 years, following the death of owner Flo Cooper last year whose final wishes included donating the money from the sale to charity. The action left dance, speed clubs and one of Canada’s only artistic roller skating clubs, operating out of the rink, stranded.
The CARSC reached out to no fewer than 50 venues, but those only had availability in the summer, they didn’t allow wheels, they had unsuitable floors or costs were too steep. Finally, however, the club was able to secure some space at the Indus Recreation Centre.
While the facility provides a solution to allow the athletes to keep training, it doesn’t have hardwood floors, no lines and loops on the floor which are essential for artistic roller skating – much like figure skating but on roller skates – contains a much smaller area and costs more for less training time.
“Artistic skaters exist and eventually we’re going to need help, so we want to see if there are people who are willing to stand up,” said Dee-Ann Wagner Mercer, vice president and fundraising director for CARSC, and Kayla-Ann’s mother.
“All our winter rinks are ice. Winter is when we need the space and there’s nothing. Now we’re going to go into Indus, which is half the size of Lloyds. It’ll be fine, we’ll get by. But eventually we need to get something where the girls can actually train.
“I spent days and weeks looking … a lot of places don’t allow wheels. I think it’s a huge struggle with roller rinks in Alberta. You really can’t properly train.”
Wagner Mercer was able to find a few places in Calgary that would accommodate the club, but prices ranged from $80 to $183 per hour. Previously the club paid a monthly fee for 40 hours – or three days a week – at Lloyds Recreation. Now the club is dishing out $40 per hour for only one day a week. The family said between coaching fees and floor rental fees the club is scraping by, leaving little wiggle room for dollars towards competitions.
Last year at the Northwest Regional Championships in Portland, Ore., 13-year-old Kayla-Ann Mercer took home two gold medals and one bronze in six disciplines. Mercer has been involved in artistic roller skating for the past four years and hopes to make it to the Artistic Skating World Championships in the future. She’s currently preparing for this year’s regional competition in June, but worries about the future of the sport as only six members remain on the team – the club lost two members over the past year.
“We won’t be able to compete as much because now we don’t have the money,” said Mercer. “Now we are fundraising for different floor space. I have to find a way to practice a whole dance, which takes a lot of floor space. There are so few (artistic roller skaters) in Canada that compete. Artistic roller-skating is my favourite thing. Everyone asks me ‘oh what’s that?’ and I say oh it’s my sport. You can join it if you want because we’re dying right now.”
One of the problems with finding space – in addition to the financial burden – is the need to have lines and loops on the floor; a necessity for the sport that makes it more difficult at competitions if practiced without them. Most facilities would not accommodate the request.
Natasha Bogucki has been roller skating for 13 years and competed in the Artistic Skating World Championships in September 2017 in China. As one of the assistant coaches for the club, she is worried about the decline in memberships over the years and the lack of facilities in Canada.
“It’s a dying sport, and it was really big in the ’60s and ’70s but we are basically the only operating club in Canada right now,” said Bogucki.
“It’s hard to get recognition and make people aware that this is even a sport. I’m a little worried, we don’t get as much publicity as when we were at Lloyds. The girls that we have right now are really passionate and eager, so we’ll definitely continue for as long as they want to skate. It’s definitely been a struggle for the past few years for sure.”
With the void left behind from Lloyds Recreation’s closure, the idea of a new roller rink, Wheelz Roller Center, has already been proposed. While the project is still in its infancy, the business plan is near completion and Wayne Pedersen and Teresa Sutherland – who are spearheading the idea – said more information is needed to see if the business model is viable to keep roller skating alive in the city.
For now, CARSC will start practicing at the Indus Recreation Centre until more space becomes available in the summer.