After four weeks of being closed, the City of Kamloops has partially reopened Hillside Stadium.

The facility had been shut down on March 24 because not enough people were following social distancing, and mayor Ken Christian says it’s now reopened to limited hours, and monitored use.

“I believe the hours are somewhere between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and that will be for monitored use in the Hillside Stadium area. So we will have, we call them park ambassadors now, who are looking after the skate park and the bike ranch and some of those facilities where we have seen overcrowding, to monitor that facility.”

Christian cautions we are still a long way off from sports facilities being open as “normal.”

“We are Canada’s Tournament Capital, we built this city on the love of sport. We have the facilities and we have the infrastructure and we have the volunteer networks, and they’re itching to get back to regular play,” he says.

“But how do you play soccer, how do you work in a dugout, and be six feet apart from the person next to you? So until we have been given a green light to look at that, they will remain closed.”

Christian says any direction to re-open sports venues here will come from Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. He says her comments have been guarded to date about potential reopening facilities.