"It was beyond disgusting," parent upset over state of Sudbury Arena

When Lisanne Gauld walked into the Sudbury Arenaon Oct. 21 for her daughter's home opener hockey game, she wasn't expecting to walk into the venue looking like a trash can.

"There were piles of garbage everywhere and the floors were super sticky," she said. "I've never seen it that bad."

Gauld's daughter plays for the U15 AA Lady Wolves and she says they've been playing at the Sudbury Arena for the past eight years as part of their regular season practices. She said the venue is often not very clean but this was the worst she has ever seen it.

How can a public venue be left like that?- Lisanne Gauld

"It was really sad and disappointing," said Gauld.

"Being in the north we already have enough trouble getting teams up here to play any sport. This was our home opener.We had a team drive up three hours to play and the arena looked like a dump."

Gauld said she wonders how the girls felt that day coming out of the change room ready to play only to look over in the stands to see piles of garbage. She said it was very embarrassing.

"One of my first thoughts was, are they seriously that understaffed?" she said. "How can a public venue be left like that?"

Gauldsaid the team paysto have ice time and that they should receive a refund for having to play in those conditions.

She believes Sudbury is behind in terms of the venues being offered and this incident will only fuel the argument.

Gauld said she is grateful the team only had one game in the Sudbury Arena. She said they hosted the teams for four games and all the other venues they played in were fine.

But she knew she needed to share the photos she took of the state of the arena with her friends and quickly created a Facebook post showing what happened.

By Monday the post was shared nearly 400 times.

Since posting her experience, Gauld said she has been receiving messages from strangers stating the arena has been left in that state often.

"This woman told me that her child plays hockey at the Sudbury Arena on Saturday mornings,like eightor nine in the morning, and she said it's pretty much like that all the time," she said.

"She was like, they were playing in the garbage because it's everywhere."

Gauld said she hopes all levels at the Sudbury Arena meet to talk about this problem and find a solution so it doesn't continue to happen. She said it was beyond disgusting and can't happen again.

City's response

City staff are responsible for cleaning and maintaining the arena.

In an email to CBC News the City of Greater Sudbury said "the lack of cleanliness of the Sudbury Community Arena on Oct.21 is not consistent with our expectations when it comes to cleaning and maintaining our facilities."

The statement said staff scheduled to clean up after a Sudbury Wolves game the night before did not complete their shift and assigned cleaning duties.

"We are meeting with staff involved to reinforce expectations around cleaning following events and review our resourcing and scheduling plans," the email said.