A new sign was erected to commemorate the new partnership between the City of Calgary and Penny Lane Entertainment in the rebranding of Calgary’s largest skatepark to Cowboys Park.
Brendan Bectold, a skateboarder who frequents the park, says the former Shaw Millennium Park, also known as Millz, has a deeply rooted history in the Canadian skateboarding community.
“Anyone that’s familiar with Canadian skateboarding has heard a story about Millz, whether it’s something that’s passed down from a peer or something that they’ve experienced firsthand,” Bectold said.
At its opening in Calgary back in 2000, the park was praised as the world’s largest concrete skatepark and remains Canada’s largest outdoor skatepark, spanning over 17 acres.
Similar to the previous year with the new partnership, a large portion of the park is set to be closed off for the music festival during the Stampede season.
Starting mid-June, the intermediate skate park bowls, basketball courts, and parts of the advanced skate park bowls will be inaccessible to the public and are expected to reopen in mid-July, after the Cowboys Music Festival wraps up.
This not only disrupts the public use of the park, but also interferes with the repairs needed to maintain the facility when the warmer months are the best time to do so.
Since renaming the park Cowboys, Bectold says, “They have put in some effort and kind of patched up some of the holes and made some improvements to the park, which is nice to see, but those improvements can only go so far when the skatepark is closed for a big chunk of the summer for a private event.”
There’s been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the park’s future plans and operation with Penny Lane’s 10 year agreement with the city that even Mayor Jeromy Farkas has trouble unravelling.
Earlier this month, Farkas said, “I hate this deal … I believe there should be more disclosure to Calgarians in terms of what the overall terms of that that agreement.”
He’s added city council has seen the agreement but are not allowed to discuss or reveal its contents because a strict confidentiality clause is in place.
Farkas says that arrangement is a “red flag” and wants to “have as much transparency as possible in terms of what was agreed to.”
Skateboarders like Bectold say that people who use the park regularly weren’t consulted or involved in the decision-making process for the summer festival season.
“I would have put out some form of public survey that affected individuals or groups could respond to, or maybe consulting with local skate shops like Ninetimes or Shredz, or even going to the park and getting firsthand feedback for what would best suit the community,” Bectold said.
