New Chilliwack sports arena to have a tent roof

Pickleball enthusiasts, ball hockey players, and roller skaters will be working up a sweat under a $2 million tent roof in Chilliwack’s newest arena when it is finally complete.

Chilliwack politicians decided this week to purchase a fabric covering for the city’s dry floor expansion to the Landing Sports Centre.

The expansion was originally planned as a pickleball-only addition to the city’s Chilliwack Landing Sports Centre, but the project was expanded and revised last year. As The Current reported in November, staff said other local sporting groups were competing for dry arena space and suggested that the addition include more multi-use spaces.

The Landing Sports Centre Annex, as the city has dubbed it, has a $6.7 million budget. This week, council agreed to spend nearly $2 million for its roof. Rather than constructing a solid structure to cover the new arena space, staff suggested using a “Britespan fabric structure”—essentially a big fabric gazebo—to shelter the floor. The fabric structure is the most cost-effective way to cover such a big area, staff wrote in their report to council, and would be supported by a “robust” lower wall on all sides.

This wouldn’t be Chilliwack’s first Britespan roof. The city currently owns 10 similar structures, which are used to house salt, sand, and equipment. Residents are likely most familiar with the Britespan structure covering used drywall at the Bailey Landfill. (On Tuesday, council also approved the $270,000 purchase of two smaller Britespan structures.

Staff say that the fabric structure has been proven to stand up to “the harshest conditions as witnessed by the City of Chilliwack and neighboring municipalities.” Crews are also familiar with the maintenance needs of the structures.

Although the tent structure will make up a majority of the playing area, it won’t be up to the athletes to keep the arena warm. The facility will be heated by an HVAC system, potentially using excess heat from the neighbouring Chilliwack Coliseum. (The city installed a million-dollar system to pump surplus energy from its ice rinks to heat the pools and hot tubs at the leisure centre in 2023.)

The annex will include an acrylic floor underneath the fabric structure, and a wood-framed “amenity space.”

Council approved the purchase on Tuesday, Jan. 28.