From Hockey to Baseball MAC Impacted By Stay At Home Order

ST. CLOUD -- In a normal spring the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud would be one of the busiest places in town, however, this is far from a normal spring because of the coronavirus.

Operations Director Todd Bissett says the ice arenas were supposed to host several events in March and April.

With several youth tournaments, a figure skating ice show, a lot of big events.  That would have kept us very busy, and not only impacting us but a lot of the stuff when its canceled impacts the hotels in the community, and restaurants, and gas stations the list goes on down the line what gets impacted.

Bissett says they are down to just one sheet of ice right now. He says, with the empty arenas, they're keeping busy working on their spring and summer maintenance projects.

With the lack of snow this spring this would have been a great year for baseball, especially compared to the past few years. However, the coronavirus has kept the fields at the Municipal Athletic Complex empty. Bissett says with Joe Faber and Dick Putz Fields should be bustling with games from SCSU, SCTCC, high schools, and soon the Rox. He says April, May, and June is normally extremely busy. Instead, he says they've had to layoff most of their part-time staff and are minimizing their maintenance work.

We just haven't had any part-time maintenance staff since end of March.  So, basically, our part-time staff is not working for us right now in an effort to save some money and that's part of the city's policy right now in terms of part-time labor.

Bissett says the lack of revenue coming in at the baseball fields and the hockey arenas will have an impact on the city's budget at the end of the year. He says he's waiting to hear what the Governor has to say this week about the Stay At Home order and what that will mean to the games scheduled for June and further in the summer.

One bright spot is that the Veterans Public Golf Course has been allowed to reopen under the Governor's Executive Order. Bissett says activity seems to be up a bit so far compared to other springs as well as with leagues starting.

Bissett says he remains hopeful that the MAC will be included in a bonding bill yet this year if the State Legislature puts one together.