The Southeast Events Group (SEG) is asking the City of Steinbach for $877,000 to help cover operating costs this first year and a number of facility improvements that are needed. This request was presented by the SEG board of directors at city council’s SPC or Strategic Priorities Committee meeting on Tuesday. SEG President Grant Lazaruk says there are two components to this request, an operating fund request of $435,000 and a capital projects request of $442,000. The operating fund request Regarding the operating deficit, Lazaruk says “Delays in construction caused delays in creating revenue”. He notes the initial plan was to have the SEC up and running by fall of 2024, but then the date was pushed back to December, and in December it became clear that they would only get partial occupancy by February at the earliest. When all was said and done, Lazaruk says they only gained partial occupancy of the arena in March and were able to hold five Pistons playoff games and a number of other hockey events before the season wrapped up. Since then, they have slowly been getting access to the rest of the building, with the gym and walking track finally opening in late August. With partial occupancy, Lazaruk notes "You have operating costs that occur during this period of time with no income. So, when that happens with a startup, and there's no income and you get your operating costs that are accumulating, it creates a negative cash flow.” Plans for operating finances going forward On a more positive note, Lazaruk says things are trending in the right direction. “Going through the summer, it's a little quiet and the gym wasn't open during the summer, but now we've taken over the entire facility, there's lots of activity and lots of buzz as you come in.” Lazaruk notes the City of Steinbach provides the SEG with an annual grant that works out to approximately $800,000 per year, but the total operating costs of the facility are around $4M. He adds the plan has always been for the SEG to run the facility in a way that generates revenue to cover rest of the operating costs and they are on track to do so. “The road map is there for us to deliver and we're excited about it and we're there now actually. We've got positive cash flow September, October, November, December and through the winter months, it looks really good, actually.” He adds “We have a facility that's becoming self-sufficient. It's not going to be reliant on taxpayers to cover the cost and it's on a user pay basis where you use the facility and there's fees associated with all the different activities and they're affordable, they're inclusive and it allows us to operate.” The capital request Lazaruk says the $442,000 capital request is more straight forward. “These are immediate things that are needed today for operations, and they probably would be summed up as a lot of little pieces. It's improvement in some audio and then there's some improvements with regards to facility, with regards to chairs and furniture, etc." These are things Lazaruk says will help complete the beautiful facility. Steinbach City Council's response Steinbach Mayor Earl Funk says council was not surprised by this funding request from the Southeast Events Group on Tuesday, though they did spend some questioning members of the SEG board to get a full picture of the situation. Funk notes “My initial thoughts on the request is that I don't think it's out of ordinary, these things happen. It's a new building, learning how to use it, learning how to rent it, learning what it can all do for us, it takes some time.” Obviously, Funk says when ground is broken on large projects like this, council is hopeful that everything will go exactly according to plan, but that is rarely the case. “In a perfect world, you can set everything by dates, but the reality is when real life starts happening, those things aren't always accurate.” He adds “This ask was public and that's great because now everyone knows what's gone on and how things are working.” Though they understand the situation, Funk says council will now need to deliberate. He notes they will bring this request to their fall study session, where they make plans for the upcoming budget. “There's a lot of things we have to look at. There'll be some drainage projects we have to look at, sewer projects we've got to look at, so it'll all have to fit into the capital plan. Exactly where we're going to land, I don't know, but we're going to do our best to make a good budget for our community for 2026.” Finally, Funk notes though there are some growing pains, the value of the brand new Southeast Event Centre is evident. “It’s incredible. I think long term it's going to be a building that is going to bring many, many people from the Southeast and probably all over Manitoba to Steinbach, and that is what it's built for. I think it's going to serve the community well.”