The City and others are planning to replace the existing scoreboard at the Whitney Forum with a larger board - if the building can stand it, that is.
Some community groups, including the Flin Flon Bombers, are part of an effort to fund a larger scoreboard for Flin Flon’s indoor arena, but no deal can be done until the City is sure that a new board could be built safely. There are hangups - namely, the exact weight of the current board isn’t fully known, along with whether the rink’s roof could support a new scoreboard that weighs around 2,000 pounds.
“The Bombers have approached us and several other groups with regard to an opportunity to upgrade the scoring clock,” said Flin Flon Mayor Cal Huntley.
The City would foot part of the bill for a new scoreboard with other contributions likely, though no other purchasers or sponsors were named either by Huntley or other councillors.
“I won't say anything more about that, because it might not even happen, but we sure hope it does. It would be a hell of an improvement and it's a good deal, with regards to a scoreboard. We kind of hope it does happen,” said the mayor.
Before a new board can be bought or installed, the City has to carry out an engineering evaluation of the roof and rink structure. According to City data, trusses for the rink’s roof were last examined in 2010 - years after the current board was bought and installed - and engineers said the roof should not have any more loads mounted to it without further analysis.
As part of the new assessment, Winnipeg-based engineering firm Associated Engineering (AE) will be tasked with reviewing the Forum’s roof framing plan to determine whether a new scoreboard could be feasible. Council approved a resolution to spend about $15,000 on the assessment at the Dec. 7 city council meeting.
“...without additional analysis, no additional loads should be added,” reads a summary of the 2010 report in the AE project brief.
The current scoreboard’s exact weight is not known - the City has assumed it weighs about 1,000 pounds, due to analysis showing two 500-pound loads attached to the roof. A hypothetical new scoreboard would weigh roughly twice that.
“This is anecdotally, but I recall from 15 or 20 years ago, when we got that clock, it was mentioned that we were at the maximum that it would handle in regard to weight,” said Huntley.
“We understand that the City has been working with a clock supplier and the loading data, including weights, support locations for the clock and any mechanisms used to raise and lower the clock will be provided by the City,” reads the AE brief.
AE will be contracted to review background data with the rink and its roof, visit the site, analyze the building and roof to determine whether it can hold a larger clock (as well as analyzing the current press box structures in the arena) and develop and design a possible transfer structure and lifting mechanism.
“We need to confirm that officially and find out what we can do to handle it. We’ve commissioned an engineering firm to do a study and given the structure and the structural engineering of the building, what formally it could hold and what options we have - if we need to beef it up,” said Huntley.
“That’s the idea - to see if we can take advantage of this opportunity or not.”
