Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of moving the arena to Lebreton Flats, but we need to look at this from all angles, and I am saying the LRT plan is not as supportive of the hockey fan market as most people think. Even with the completion of Phase 2 of the Confederation Line, there is only one significant Park n Ride lot at Place d'Orleans.
People cannot park in shopping centre parking lots. You will get towed. There are warning signs to that affect. The other lots mostly depend on the limitations of the O-Train. As I said, even doubling trains requires another reconstruct, and we have seen how long that takes, let alone double tracking which will shut down the line for another year or two. None of that is even part of Phase 2.
We also need to get past the anti-suburban bias. The suburbs is where the bulk of Ottawa Senators fans live. If we move the arena to Lebreton Flats, we need make sure that the fans can get there in an efficient manner or they won't buy tickets.
Let me tell you that the success of the Lansdowne transit plan is about direct service. People will NOT transfer at 10 pm. I am a football season ticket holder. I live in the inner suburbs and I used transit to every game this season. The only reason why I did that amongst thousands of other fans is because the service is direct. If I have to transfer, I will drive. No ifs ands or buts. I won't apologize for that. My time is important especially when I have to work the next day. There was very little direct transit service in the old days to football games and very few football fans took transit. Direct service is the key to get buy in.
This is not Toronto or Montreal or New York where millions of people have access to a downtown arena by subway. You can bet that very few people travel to the ACC from Mississauga or Oshawa. The large size of the market allows that. Ottawa's market needs to attract fans from every part of the city.
I am sorry but I say it as I see it. I can easily take the O-Train to a game at Lebreton but I am not going to wait an hour to get on a train.
Again, I like the idea of moving the arena downtown but our transit planning needs significant improvement over the current plans to support it.
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So build a parking garage at the new stadium. Problem solved.
I'm a Toronto guy, but there must already be parking garages in downtown Ottawa near the new arena, no?
People from Toronto get to the ACC in a variety of ways. The subway carries a huge amount obviously, but the arena is also right beside the main GO train hub, with GO trains & buses going all across the GTA, and of course some people drive, some walk, so bike.
Also I'm assuming that the people who work downtown could just walk to the new arena (or take the LRT a couple of stops) from their offices after work.