By KEVIN BERGER, Local Journalism Initiative
Outside of a few hiccups, the Martensville Recreation Centre (MRC) had a great first first full year of operation, filling up its retail and lease space, booking most of its ice time and hosting a number of major events like the Western Canadian Ball Hockey Championships in July and the Saskatoon Blades training camp in August.
That’s according to MRC general manager Jason Keating, who gave a presentation to City of Martensville councillors at their December 16 meeting regarding the facility’s operations in 2025.
Keating is with Nustadia Recreation Inc. (NRI), a company that specializes in the development and management of recreational facilities, including Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon.
Nustadia had been awarded a pre-opening contract in November 2023 to assist with the MRC’s opening and then took over management of the facility’s operations on October 1, 2024.
Keating’s report first detailed some of the major tenants at the MRC, the first being the Boys and Girls Club of Saskatoon. Earlier this year, the non-profit organization announced it would be opening a new early learning centre at the MRC to meet a growing demand for licenced childcare services in the city.
The Clark’s Crossing Gazette reached out to BGC Saskatoon CEO Heidi Carl last week to confirm whether the centre would still open in the new year. She confirmed they are currently planning for a March 2026 opening date and will be providing 90 licenced spaces.
“We look forward to meeting new children and families and developing partnerships in the community,” Carl said.
Next, Keating mentioned Super Skills Elite Hockey Development, which had taken over the over 17,000 square foot dryland training area.
Other notable tenants include Stu’s Golf, which operates a golf simulator out of the multi-purpose room; Top Shelf Sports, which is acting as the MRC’s pro-shop provider; Craven Sport Services, which occupies an office space in the second level of the Williams Family Field House; and the Valley Soccer Association and Martensville Soccer, which are each occupying an office.
In terms of usage of the facility, Keating said they had actually done better than originally budgeted in terms of the hockey arena, and the multi-purpose rooms had also seen a lot of rentals.
Another nice surprise was their batting cages, which had been more busy than expected, he indicated.
One downside was the Saputo Climbing Centre, which had seen less usage than hoped. Keating admitted there was “kind of a learning curve there” in terms of how the climbing wall world functions, and they’re now pushing to stay open seven days a week and offer packages to groups to make the climbing wall a bit more busy.
There was also a little bit of a shortfall in usage of the field house, especially during the summer months.
“Obviously, most of the leagues and user groups are in the outdoors in summer time,” he said, noting there was more usage during rainy days and periods when wildfire smoke made playing outside problematic.
“That’s something that over time, that will progressively get better,” he said, noting they will be working on increasing usage of the field house.
As mentioned earlier, major events hosted at the MRC this year included the Saskatoon Blades training camp, including an exhibition game hosted in conjunction with Martensville Minor Hockey, and the Western Canadian Ball Hockey Championships, which was also split between Merlis Belsher and Warman.
Keating also highlighted how in November, the Saskatoon Junior Hockey League hosted the Western All-Star Challenge at the MRC, followed by the Saskatoon Rush holding a training camp and media day later that month.
As well, the MRC played host to multiple youth hockey and soccer tournaments, while the Saskatoon Tribal Council did three weeks of summer camps for Indigenous youth bussed in from around the province.
Looking ahead to 2026, Keating noted happily that the building footprint is full with both their retail and lease space booked up.
He said they are continuing to work with the Blades, Discover Saskatoon and the SJHL to host bigger provincial and national events in the building, and there has also been some discussion at beach volleyball being steered there.
He also suggested they may be looking at more advertising and possibly selling the naming rights to the arena.
Councillor Katharine Carter asked Keating if there had been any discussion with ultimate Frisbee teams out of Saskatoon in coming to the facility.
Keating said they had reached out to multiple groups involved in sports like cricket and ultimate Frisbee when he first came on, but it remained a work in progress.
“I think this year what we’re trying to accomplish is to make it worthwhile for them to come out and work with them on price and generating that business to start,” he said.
Councillor Brad Blixt also asked if the MRC had any targeted utilization rates. Keating replied that, off the top of his head, they had about 95 per cent utilization in the arena during winter and about 85 per cent utilization in the Williams Family Field House.