While COVID-19 led to increased tee times at city golf courses during the summer, restrictions, fear and weather are causing decreased numbers in indoor facilities this winter.

“People aren’t comfortable coming to public fitness facilities for the fear of becoming infected,” Ted Girgulis, a coordinator for the City of Regina Program of Park and Recreation, said via email.

Sportplex – Fieldhouse & Lawson Aquatic Centre, has drastic attendance decreases as people have told city representatives they are not happy with the registration rules.

Sportsplex cashier Ruvie Linantud has noticed “that people are mad that they have to register still and they get upset with us when it is their responsibility to register and to wear a mask.” 

 Girgulis explained the reason for the regulations. 

“To ensure contact tracing and maintain capacity levels, all activities need to be pre-registered for,” said Girgulis. “Clients may register in person, over the phone and online.”

 “Some of our clients don’t want to go through the trouble of pre-registering and haven’t been using the facilities.”

 The manager of Community and Recreation programs at the city of Regina, Bobbie Selinger, explained via email that attendance has dropped by 40-60% depending on the public health orders that are in place. 

She further stated places like the Sandra Schmirler Leisure Center had a capacity for 200-250 people before COVID and are now limited to only 60 people.

That is the same for other places, like the Good life Fitness center at Victoria Square Mall, where attendance has dropped.

Clark Munroe is a regular attendee at Good life in the morning. 

 “I used to see 50-60 women and men and now only 30-40 people,” said Munroe.

The restrictions are tighter at the Good life Fitness Center, and it has messed up  Munroe’s workout routine as they would only give you an hour now before kicking you out. 

 “It has been tough for me to get into a groove,” said Munroe.

Once Good life Fitness Centre were given the green light to reopen, restrictions were in place to distance customers from each other. Previously the showers and steam room were closed but after the rule was lifted, customers were allowed to have a one-hour time slot for steam room purposes and showers. The one hour rule also applies to fitness-related activities.

Goodlife Fitness Representatives did not have attendance information provided and could not comment on this story as attempts were made to reach them by phone.

Some places like Goodlife fitness or the Sportsplex have seen a decrease in their activities however, RBI baseball training center has been relatively the same. 

Munroe is also a member at RBI, and he explained during an interview, “they reduce group sizes as they used to be 12-16 people, and now there is eight.” The reason why they reduced group sizes as told by Munro was so they could keep everything relatively the same. He elaborated further that the people at RBI did not want to compromise training for their customers.

The Regina’s indoor facilities have safety measures in place as protection to their customers. As for a regular day, Linantud is responsible as a cashier to sanitize and clean her area and sell memberships. As for RBI, Munroe observed that the workers cleaned their entire facility and restricted some places off.