Although its sixth season has yet to be publicly announced, the television series Shoresy appears to have retained its home base at the Capreol Community Centre and Arena.
During Monday’s planning committee meeting of city council, the city’s elected officials were unanimous in allowing New Metric Media to lease one of the Capreol arena’s two pads and associated rooms for another three years for use as a film studio.
The company was first granted a three-year lease in 2022 to film such television series as Letterkenny and its hockey-centric spinoff, Shoresy.
Featuring foul-mouthed hockey players who play for the fictional Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs, “Shoresy’s” fourth season was released earlier this year.
A fifth season was filmed earlier this year but has not yet been released.
Meanwhile, the 12th and final season of Letterkenny was released on Crave in late 2023.
During Monday’s meeting, New Metric Media executive producer Kara Haflidson spoke briefly in support of extending the company’s arena pad lease by three years.
By Haflidson’s estimation, New Metric Media’s productions spent $8 million in Northern Ontario this year alone.
Sudbury’s exposure “from the U.S. to Australia to the U.K., with Sudbury being played as Sudbury in Shorsey, is an incredible boost to Sudbury and to tourism,” she said. “I hope we extend the lease so we can continue to do this for a few years.”
Representing the community on city council, Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbée echoed Haflidson’s sentiment that Shoresy puts Sudbury on the map.
In conversation with Sudbury.com following Monday’s meeting, Labbée said that during past travels to the United States, people have picked up on her accent and asked about both Shoresy and Letterkenny.
“It’s great for tourism, it’s great for the film industry,” she said, adding that the city’s positive relationships with the people behind Letterkenny and Shoresy is likely to create positive word-of-mouth.
Shoresy is both filmed and set in Sudbury, with Nickel City references sprinkled throughout. Sudbury Blueberry Bulldog members are seen eating at Peppi Panini, hanging out at The Coulson, The Dog House Sports Bar, Caruso Club and The Grand, and playing games at the Sudbury Community Arena.
Earlier this year, the Sudbury Five noted on Instagram that scenes from the series’ fifth season were being filmed during warm-ups at their March 23 game.
During Monday’s meeting, Capreol Minor Hockey Association representatives Jonathan Tulloch and Sara Gascon asked the city to invest more in the Capreol arena.
Their goal is for the Capreol Arena to one day become a double-pad deal again, and they urged New Metric Media to support the city in paying for upgrades.
Pad No. 1 was closed early in the pandemic, which shifted all ice use to pad No. 2.
Nothing in the analysis by city staff and their reports to city council point to pad No. 1 reopening for public use as an ice surface, Labbée told Sudbury.com.
The long-delayed Hanmer twin pad, for example, calls for four ice pads to close in conjunction with its opening, including the Raymond Plourde Arena, Centennial Arena, Capreol pad No. 1 and one additional as-yet undetermined pad.
Even so, Labbée said that any decisions regarding Capreol pad No. 1 will be off the table for at least another three years due to the film studio lease extension. The lease has allowed the otherwise vacant space to help bring in municipal revenue which has been spent on city infrastructure, Labbée said, including Capreol pad No. 2 and the balance of publicly available space in the building.
When the film studio lease expires, Labbée said that alternate public uses for the space will need to be investigated.
Capreol pad no. 1 isn’t the only shuttered municipal arena being used as a film studio.
A long-closed arena in New Sudbury has been leased to Northern Ontario Film Studios for the past several years.
Last year, a crew headed by director/writer/producer Benjamin Paquette filmed the movie Ripping Off Othello (in post-production as of April) using the old Falconbridge Arena as studio space.
Although the planning committee of city council was unanimous in approving the three-year lease extension on Monday, their decision still needs to be ratified by city council as a whole on Tuesday.
The public portion of Tuesday’s city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
The Capreol pad no. 1 lease will only come up for discussion on Tuesday in the event a city council member flags it. Otherwise, the three-year extension will be ratified when they vote on whether to approve the item titled, “Matters arising from the planning committee meeting of July 14, 2025,” which is 10.1.1 on the meeting’s agenda.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.