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Originally Posted by waterloowarrior
During the program [Barry Wellar] was arguing that he was the only person saying at the OMB hearing for the Palladium that they would need to widen the Queensway (he discounted all the other development since then), and he hoped that all the engineers who testified otherwise were no longer appearing as expert witnesses or appearing as professional engineers...
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The only way to answer that question one way or another would be to determine what traffic on the Queensway was like on game nights in the first couple of years or so after the Palladium opened. There would not be any other additional development that wasn't already being accounted for (like there is today). So, if the Queensway jammed up in that early period on gamenights he would have been correct. If not, he would have been incorrect (though the recession would complicate that a bit).
I honestly can't recall - I wasn't driving back then and we always took the bus going to games. So I decided to look it up and sure enough, there were traffic problems from the outset of its opening in January 1996. I looked at Citizen articles and letters and there was plenty of bad press about traffic when it opened. The opening event, a Bryan Adams concert, was a nightmare with a tailback extending to Woodroffe. The next one was better, but only because people started using other roads like Hazeldean as well as carpooling and transit. A year later, here's where things stood:
Ottawa Citizen, Jan 16, 1997.
OPINION: Despite quibbles about driving, Corel Centre is smash hit
Michael Prentice
Build it and they will come -- even if it's in a former cornfield out of town.
In the year since the building opened, the Corel Centre has proved a resounding success, even though problems remain in getting to and from the place.
Critics grumble it's too far from downtown Ottawa -- a 20-minute drive on the Queensway when traffic is light and roads are dry, at least 30 minutes in rush hour or bad weather, or when there's a capacity crowd of 18,000.
The Corel Centre, which opened as the Palladium, is a big-city facility surrounded by a small-city road system. Traffic and parking remain the biggest source of complaints.
But Dave Dakers, director of event services, says the situation has been greatly improved from when the building opened. After a sell-out event, it usually takes about 37 minutes to empty the parking lots, he says.
The problem is the inadequacy of the Queensway, which is only two lanes wide in each direction from the Corel Centre to Moodie Drive on the outskirts of Ottawa. Dakers says attendants could empty the parking lots more quickly if traffic wasn't so sluggish on the Queensway.
No relief is in sight. The Ontario transportation ministry isn't considering widening the highway between the Corel Centre and Eagleson Road. If there is any widening of the highway in the next few years, it would be between Eagleson Road and Moodie Drive, government officials say.
What impact is the Corel Centre's location having on attendance?
According to a public opinion survey done for the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators last fall, 54 per cent of local residents describing themselves as hockey fans did not attend a single game in the Corel Centre during the team's first half-season there.
Among those self-described hockey fans, 11 per cent said the arena's location was the main reason they had not been to a game. That figure paled compared with the 55 per cent of hockey fans who said the high price of tickets (or their lack of cash or their perception that prices are too high) was the chief factor keeping them away.
Roger Newton, executive director of the Corel Centre, doubts the building's location has any impact on attendance. Newton, who has previous experience in the United States running a building as large, says first-year attendance almost exactly met his expectation.
"Crowds compared favorably with those in other cities for the same events, such as concerts,'' says Newton. "I've got to conclude that our location has not had any impact. For many people, we are only a 15-minute drive. It's not as if many people were being asked to drive an hour to get here.''
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact of the Corel Centre, or the Hull Casino, the other entertainment centre that opened in the region in the last year. Between them, the two buildings are closing in on combined attendance of five million people in their first year of operation.
The Corel Centre has drawn more than 1.5 million. Casino attendance is expected to be about 3.5 million by the time it reaches its first anniversary on March 24.
A measure of the Corel Centre's success is that it is attracting more people to non-hockey events than are attending such events at the new Molson Centre in Montreal, which has the advantage for some of being in the heart of downtown.
The Molson Centre may draw slightly more people than the Corel Centre in its first full year -- but only because the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens consistently outdraw the Ottawa Senators.
The Corel Centre has meant more big-name rock concerts and more big-budget ice shows, such as Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which will be here Feb. 19-23.
But it has not made that much difference to choice of entertainment in the region. So far, we've had no big-name opera stars, no classical music galas, no exhibition tennis featuring top international players, even though these are the kind of events for which we're told no suitable venue previously existed in this area.
The biggest difference the Corel Centre has brought is in the comfort and atmosphere at an event.
The Ottawa Civic Centre, former home of the Ottawa Senators, is the biggest loser. The city-owned facility has lost about $800,000 a year, which is what it earned during the 3 1/2 seasons the Senators played there.
But business is picking up at the Civic Centre in other areas, according to John Gray, who manages the building and other Lansdowne Park facilities for the city.
The Civic Centre now has more dates available for trade and consumer shows, the number of which is now back up to the level it was before the Senators came on the scene in 1992, he says. In addition, the Civic Centre has made itself a more attractive location for concerts by partitioning the 10,000-capacity arena into smaller arenas, Gray says.
Top-priced seats for hockey games at the Corel Centre cost $75, far too expensive for most people. But, for the least popular games, seat prices start at $13.50, including tax. A seat for the upcoming Disney ice show costs as little as $12.50.
The Corel Centre still has been unable to lease about 50 of its 147 suites. That may be because the best suite still available costs more than $100,000 a year.
Planned improvements at the Corel Centre in the next few months include a warmer place for smokers, who must go outside the building if they want to light up, says Corel Centre official Cyril Leeder.
Further ahead, it's planned to extend the building's lobby outward, Newton says. The lobby, where most customers enter, is too crowded and too cold in the winter, he concedes.
The Corel Centre is in the running to be named the best new major concert venue in North America, a U.S. award that would add to its prestige and help attract big-name acts.
In any case, it's hard to argue with those who say it's one of the world's best indoor arenas.
So, on balance, it would appear that Wellar was right and the traffic engineers who testified that there wouldn't be problems were wrong. However, he was not the only testifying that there would be problems. A transportation engineer testifying on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food by the name of Paul Bunt had predicted most of the problems that would occur, including the use of other roads.
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I would love to see tickets at $15 again! In the warm place for smokers, hillarious.
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