Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[MonctonRad]

Ottawa is a relatively small city (in continental, not Canadian context), and the need for two similar sized performance venues (CTC and LeBreton Flats) in a city like Ottawa is questionable. I've been to a Senators game at the CTC (staying in a downtown hotel), and, the drive out there was a pain (let alone the parking situation). It will be very difficult for the CTC to compete for high profile concerts.

The CTC may hang on a few years, but, demolition will happen at some point.

We had a similar situation in Moncton when the Avenir Centre opened downtown. Happily the old Coliseum is paired with an Agrena facility used for regional trade shows, and the facility remains profitable. They use the arena space to supplement the floor space of the agrena. They've maintained the ice plant, and the rink remains active mostly for house league and beer league hockey.

Is there any possibility the CTC could be repurposed for regional trade shows????

[J.OT13]

Ottawa's regional trade show space is the EY Centre near the airport. It's more centrally located and will have transit access eventually (been the case for over two years).

How did Vancouver support two NHL sized arenas when GM Place opened? They had roughly the same population as us today at the time.

[WhipperSnapper]

Supporting two facilities is less important than two competing facilities. CTC will not remain an arena once the new one opens. Adaptive reuse doesn't make all that much sense.

[Acajack]

The region also has a brand new 5000 seat arena in Gatineau and will soon have a renovated Civic Centre at Lansdowne with a capacity of 6000 in the heart of the city.

There is only so much need for a capacity of thousands for a limited number of events.

[WhipperSnapper]

Toronto could support two. Still, the conditions of sale of Maple Leaf Gardens included that it can't be used as an arena. That greatly reduced the sale price. Of course, MLSE didn't have to sell and could have monopolised the market with two arenas. You own two properties competing with one another. Clearly the tradeoff of one facilities with fewer annual dates is worth more than filling two.

That says these costly arena proposals/ renovations heavily subsidized by tax dollars are white elephants without a major league draw with 40 dates or more.

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Ottawa's regional trade show space is the EY Centre near the airport. It's more centrally located and will have transit access eventually (been the case for over two years).

How did Vancouver support two NHL sized arenas when GM Place opened? They had roughly the same population as us today at the time.

In the case of Vancouver, I think the renovations undertaken for Pacific Coliseum’s use in the 2010 Olympics saved it from demolition. Even still, it hosts occasional concerts and sporting events and doesn’t appear to be in the queue for demolition, even though it lacks a permanent full-time sports tenant.

Hard to say if it is going to be necessary in the future. It doesn’t really need to act like a relief valve for Rogers Arena like the FirstOntario Centre is going to for Scotiabank Arena in the GTA since Rogers Arena only has one real major-league tenant. I could see it changing if the NBA comes there but the chances of that happening are minimal. However, Lower Mainland has two other major arenas with the Langley Events Centre and Abbotsford Centre, with the potential future addition of a new Surrey Arena in the near future, so there is plenty of arena capacity in the area. Perhaps the City/PNE are holding onto it just in case for now. I know BC has considered pursuing another Olympics again in the future.

I don’t think a case can be made in Ottawa for keeping the CTC after the LeBreton arena gets built. There will be a nice new arena at Lansdowne and there is another nice new arena in Gatineau.

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Ottawa's regional trade show space is the EY Centre near the airport. It's more centrally located and will have transit access eventually (been the case for over two years).

How did Vancouver support two NHL sized arenas when GM Place opened? They had roughly the same population as us today at the time.

Older arena with smaller square footage that is closer in actual size to the Avenir Centre in Moncton even though it seats 7,000 more. Thus, it competes for the smaller concerts and secondary sports teams that would not be able to secure dates at GM Place. Ottawa's current arena is NHL-sized with all the modern amenities needed for today's NHL team...just in a less ideal location. I would imagine heating and cooling costs for the Canucks former home would also be less than that of the Canadian Tire Centre given it is probably barely over half the interior volume.

Also, as far as I know, Vancouver didn't have a secondary rink of 5-6000 for those smaller sports teams and concerts so the old Pacific Coliseum filled that niche. In contrast, Ottawa already has 2 secondary arenas that fill that niche - the Slush Puppy Centre on the other side of the river and the Arena at TD Place (seating over 10,000) soon to replaced by another arena. Having 2 NHL quality arenas would be overkill as you would not be able to draw enough events to both to justify the annual operating cost in a city of 1.6 million.

[Djeffery]

London City Council has officially approved the name change of Budweiser Gardens to Canada Life Place, effective Oct 11. CTV News story didn't mention what the naming rights fee was. The previous deal was for $6.4 million over 10 years, so I would assume higher than that.