ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The local swim community is reeling after an announcement last week that the Aquarena would remain closed for the foreseeable future, with no speculated date for reopening.
The province’s only 50-metre pool has been closed since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were implemented in March, but when regulations for sports softened during the summer, swim groups assumed they’d be diving into the water at the Aquarena again this month.
St. John’s Legends swim club — the largest in the province, with more than 200 members — was expecting to be back at the Aquarena this week.
“People were quite taken aback, pretty upset, because a lot of swimmers who were very motivated to get back in the pool after six or seven months away suddenly were told that that may not happen,” said club president Blair Pritchett.
“People were quite taken aback, pretty upset, because a lot of swimmers who were very motivated to get back in the pool after six or seven months away suddenly were told that that may not happen." — St. John's Legends president Blair Pritchett.
The Legends are an anchor tenant at the Aquarena — much like hockey teams have a home arena, the Aquarena is their home pool.
“It was surprising news, and the timing of it was particularly bad given that we were looking at a situation where we were maybe six days away from starting our program, and now we’re back to square one,” said Pritchett.
‘Very, very difficult decision’
Craig Neil, director of The Works, which includes the Aquarena and the Memorial University Field House, said The Works is a break-even business that relies on a high volume of users to make ends meet. The limited permissible capacity under COVID-19 regulations means it’s not financially feasible to keep the pool open right now, he said.
“This is an unfortunate situation that The Works and its board of directors did not want to have to take, but it comes down to a fiscal situation that we feel that there’s no recourse at this point in time," — Craig Neil/The Works director
Paired with that, Neil said the expenses don’t change despite the lower number of users because once the pool is filled with water, it still requires a certain amount of chemicals and maintenance in order to run properly.
There’s been no water in the pool since it closed in March.
“This is an unfortunate situation that The Works and its board of directors did not want to have to take, but it comes down to a fiscal situation that we feel that there’s no recourse at this point in time. … It was a very, very difficult decision to have to make,” said Neil.
Pool vital for competitors
Corina Hartley, executive director at Swimming Newfoundland and Labrador, said she was surprised by the news.
“To not have the Aquarena be open is devastating for the entire membership of Swimming Newfoundland and Labrador,” she said.
“The Aquarena is vital to our sport in that it is the only 50-metre-long course pool facility in the entire province. For competitive swimming, it is an absolute must.”
Hartley said it’s a requirement for elite athletes in the province to make qualifying times at a 50-metre pool in order to enter national competitions.
“If there’s no Aquarena available, those swimmers cannot qualify for the national-level competitions that they would be hoping to participate in, which is devastating. That would include meets like Olympic trials, Canadian national swim meets with Swimming Canada. These are things that our young elite swimmers strive for their entire swimming career, their entire childhood.”
As for the St. John’s Legends, Pritchett said their club is now “aggressively pursuing” a place for their members to swim this fall, but with so many swimmers — many of whom swim as often as nine times a week during ordinary times — finding that kind of pool space “is very, very challenging.”
“If there’s no Aquarena available, those swimmers cannot qualify for the national-level competitions that they would be hoping to participate in, which is devastating. That would include meets like Olympic trials, Canadian national swim meets with Swimming Canada. These are things that our young elite swimmers strive for their entire swimming career, their entire childhood.” — Corina Harley, Swimming NL
And while Pritchett echoes Hartley’s sentiments about competitive swimming, saying the closure “hamstrings the swimming career” of young athletes in the province who want to advance, he said it also affects a much wider demographic.
“There’s an argument that the Aquarena is the most important piece of recreation infrastructure in the whole province when you look at the scope of people who go through there, from not just St. John’s and surrounding towns, but across the province.
“If you go there in the morning and spend a couple of hours, you’d see babies and you’d see 80-year-olds, and everyone in between. From Olympic qualifiers, to RNC cadet training, to senior citizen aquafit (classes) — you name it, it happens at the Aquarena.
“So, it’s a pretty impactful decision, I think, on the community when something like that is taken away.”
Employees affected
Pritchett said the club was also disappointed it wasn’t given a chance to see if there was some way they could tweak things to make opening the Aquarena more viable. He said they may have been of some assistance given the club spends about $200,000 a year on pool time, much of it at the Aquarena.
If they can’t find a place to swim regularly and collect registration fees, it also puts the club’s future in jeopardy.
“The question is how long could we survive and continue to pay at least our (three) permanent employees if we don’t have pool space? That’s something we’re trying to assess. We really, really hope it doesn’t come to that, obviously, but that’s a possibility.”
The Works employees are particularly affected. Neil said about 200 part-time employees weren’t scheduled for hours when everything closed in March, and only 40 have been called back to work since things started to open up a bit more with the fitness area and children’s day camps.
He said they are trying to find creative ways to generate revenue and save on expenses so they can find some way to open the pool.
“We have spoken to all and any individuals that we thought could help us, or any other programs that could help us, and at this current time, we haven’t received any additional support,” said Neil.
“It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation, and we certainly hope we can find some solutions in the very short term, and we can turn this around, because the Aquarena is definitely a hub of the city.”