NNSL (JAN 08/97) - As the city's game plan for its biggest and most expensive recreation complex takes shape, the local sporting community won't be watching from the sidelines.

Ter Hamer and other leaders of the Yellowknife sports groups are holding a meeting Tuesday (7 p.m., St. Pat's High School) designed to give the sports community a unified voice in the planning of the $6.3-million facility.

"It will be a while before (the city is) off the mark, so we want to get our peas in a row," said Hamer, president of the Wade Hamer Foundation and a veteran volunteer in the local sports scene.

"We're very pro-active on this. We're taking the bull by the horns."

At the meeting the organization will enumerate its membership, elect executive officers, discuss bylaws and incorporate documents and form committees to address each part of the new complex.

Among the possible elements being considered are:

* arena
* gymnasium/non-ice sports
* family/youth/adult centre
* teen centre

Hamer said his name will not be among those the membership will consider for the president of the new organization.

"I think this thing has become a little too closely associated with me, so I want to take a step back," he said.

"I don't want to be the guy at the microphone all the time."

Apart from the new facility the organization will deal with sports funding, administrative support and the management of the new facility.

Hamer noted the arena is the city's project, but added, "We will be lobbying hard for a workable facility."

"We're on the same side -- hopefully by the end of the day we'll be on the same page."

City council will be scheduling meetings to gather public input on the facility.

Hamer said "Sport Yk," a tentative name for the embryonic organization, will be surveying high school students following departmental exams at the end of the month.

"The only firm recommendation we've made is we'd like to see the facility located as close to the high schools as possible," said Hamer.

Asked if it has been determined the facility will contain two arenas, he said that was "a given."

"We have no intention of reinventing the wheel. This has been discussed and there's no point in going over it all over again."

Hamer said it was discussed in two presentations dealing with the complex he has made to council.

The ice-time situation in the city is drum tight at the moment.

City of Yellowknife facilities manager Grant White reported that both the Yellowknife Community Arena and Gerry Murphy Arena are booked solid from early morning to near or past midnight every day of the week.

Yellowknife sits 18th among 21 small prairie cities in a 1993 survey of arenas per capita.

The majority of the cities in the survey have junior hockey programs and all have travelling teams. Yellowknife has neither.