Bingo hall GM says reopening like ‘launching a new business’ after lengthy closure

By the time Gordy Ouellette is able to open the doors to City Centre Bingo on June 20, it will have been nearly seven months since any patron set foot inside the 20,000-square-foot facility.

As part of Step Two of the Saskatchewan government’s Re-Opening Roadmap — created as a way to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic — bingo halls and other event facilities will be able to have up to 150 people indoors, with stipulations.

“We can finally get the doors back open,” said Ouellette, the bingo hall’s general manager. “We’re happy. We’re relieved we get people back to work. We get charities earning some money to distribute to their various supports in the province.”

He says the hall will make the 150-person capacity limit work for a few weeks, but he’s looking forward to having even more people through the doors after Step Three of the reopening plan gets underway. A date for that has not yet been set.

The capacity inside the bingo hall is about 700, and on good days when there are special events, it can have between 500 and 600 people there.

Just getting to the stage of reopening will be a feat, through. Ouellette had to lay off around 45 staff in November.

“Advising my staff right before Christmas that they no longer had jobs and I do not know when they’re coming back to work was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to do professionally in my life,” he recalled.

Now the task of contacting everyone to come back to work and laying out a plan to be up and running in a few weeks has to get off the ground. He likens it to launching a brand new business.

“We’re going to have to deep clean the hall and get it ready for a grand reopening if you want to call it that. We’ve got a checklist — a timeline if you will — leading up to June 20 of what has to be done and when it has to be done,” he said.

The good news is that with the exception of a couple of employees, all have indicated they’d like to come back. Around 50 charities have also told him they’ll be back before September.

Ouellette said he’s hoping there isn’t too much hesitancy for those who’d like to come back and play bingo. The last year has been incredibly difficult financially.

“One day I’m thinking, ‘Oh my goodness sakes, we’re going to be 150 people every session,’ and then the next day I’m thinking, ‘Well, people might still be hesitant,’ ” Ouellette said. “We’re hoping they’re going to be here at the bingo hall.

“We’re clean, we’re sanitized (and) it’s a safe environment to come to. We take the cleaning protocols very, very seriously for our staff, our charity groups and the customer,” he added.

If the bingo hall sees a robust return of business, Ouellette thinks it might take a year or two for the business to recover financially.