The city’s arenas are experiencing a gradual and sustained decline in ice rentals, city councillors were told Monday as they grappled with a request for a fee break for the struggling company that runs the food concessions.

The reason CGC Concessions is asking for a reduction in the fees it pays the city — from a total of $80,000 annually to $36,000 to run concessions at four arenas as well as the downtown aquatic centre — is lower-than-expected revenues due to a surprising lack of foot traffic. Without the fee break, CGC says it will be forced to shut down, affecting its 26 staff, and leaving arena patrons deprived of french fries, hot dogs and hot chocolates.

Coun. Bill Marra made the motion for staff to re-engineer the proposed fee decrease, so that there’s at least an annual review of the concessions’ finances.

“They’re not making money, they suggest costs (including minimum wage) are going up, but what happens if this changes?” said Marra. “I feel we’re kind of being held hostage here.”

Ray Mensour, the city’s executive director of recreation and culture, reported that declining ice time is a trend experienced not just in Windsor, but at all ice arenas. 

“The decrease is not dramatic, however there is a trend,” he said. On the other hand, attendance at the aquatic centre is “trending upwards,” he said, explaining that as part of its annual review of operations staff will be looking at ways to increase ice usage.

Related

• Concessions at arenas, pool will close without better deal, says operator

CGC owner Rico Razaiy left the meeting Monday saying he would work with the city on this new deal and in the meantime hopefully keep the concessions running until at least the end of the hockey season.

He said when he bid on the arena concessions in 2016 and the aquatic centre in 2017, he believed he could grow the business and make a profit. But business has been awful due to lack of foot traffic, so much so that he’s losing money.

“This is a bit of a surprise to me because I thought the concessions in our premier recreation facilities would be very busy,” Jo-Anne Gignac said during the meeting. 

But concessions aren’t easy to make money on, city staff said, reporting that when the city made a request for proposals for the arenas and aquatic centre, CGC was the only bidder on one and one of two on the other. Mensour said if council agreed to CGC’s request of a fee reduction, from $80,000 to $36,000, the city would at least receive some revenue. If it decided to run it with city staff — as it had before CGC got the jobs — they would be lucky to break even, he said.

And if the city asked for new bids, “the reality is we may not get anybody who bids,” he said. “With this, at least we get something.”

CGC’s five-year contract to run the concessions at Adie Knox Arena, the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex (formerly South Windsor Arena), Forest Glade Arena and the WFCU Centre’s community arena commenced in June of 2016. Its three-year aquatic centre arrangement started five months ago on June 19, 2017. 

Coun. Rino Bortolin, a former restaurateur, said such a big fee reduction is not warranted.

The city and CGC should be looking at ways to improve revenues, rather than lowering the fees, he said. “We have tens of thousands of people going through these arenas,” he said. “This is a viable business where, if we can’t hit these dollar amounts, we should be looking at how we do it.”

But other councillors, like John Elliott, said they believe it’s important to have concessions in city arenas.

bcross@postmedia.com

twitter.com/winstarcross