It's in a great location, this can't be argued.
New facility or not the vast majority of children in the neighbourhood can't afford to play hockey to begin with. This is a non-starter. The new YMCA on Chuchill Boulevard will do much more to alleviate societal and financial problems than adding a few ice pads to the LBR.
With the amount of time taken up at Harbour Station with the Sea Dogs/Millrats/Concerts/Trade shows there's not a lot of ice time available at Harbour Station, particularly for larger tournaments. I only know of a few that have a handful of ice times there to begin with. The Howard Johnson and the Fort Howe hotel adjacent to the LBR are handy, but hotels uptown, west, and east are also available.
Nobody walks to hockey games to play. You have to carry gear. Like I said, children in the adjacent community can't really afford to play to begin with, and they'd be the ones walking. How much more would underground or multi-level parking necessitate in terms of funds rather than the costs of maintaining a larger open parking lot? I've never seen a hockey facility used on the municipal level with a parking garage, or underground parking. The costs associated don't make sense. Along with this, parking and carrying hockey gear isn't the same as just opening your car when you're at a mall parking lot. You need lots of room, particularly for those driving more than one hockey player. We're talking big trucks, vans, even buses. Neither Underground nor parking garages provide that much room and ease of movement.
Doing a real quick google maps check for the size of a lot needed you'll need 200x100 metres for four ice surfaces within a single complex and another 200x100 metres for surface parking (roughly the size of the facility in Moncton). The LBR property barely has enough space for the facility itself, let alone the parking.
Again, just looking real quick, the former Lantic Sugar Refinery site would be large enough to build a fourplex with all parking available. I'm sure the city and the port have better ideas of things to build there, however. The site where the current Gorman arena is currently located may be large enough, although there's lot clearing going on through much of the currently empty land, so I doubt the space will remain. My preference would be the Sugar Refinery Site as it's on the Uptown Peninsula, easy to reach, can be accessible by transit, has adequate space, and is an appealing location for those travelling from outside the city. That, and there's no sprawl involved.
There aren't a lot of locations where it could be built to be quite honest given size and nature. However, wherever it is built, it will provide economic spinoff. As long as you're bringing people into the city from away you're going to have an economic impact. They have to stay in hotels, they have to buy things to eat, and they have to drive around the city. These things usually occur on their own without direct planning involved (IE you don't have to build the fourplex in a heavily developed area and then surround it with stores. The horse(s) in this case can find water, and drink it too, without your guidance). If people are driving from anywhere more than an hour and a half away they aren't going to mind having to drive 5-10 minutes to their hotel/restaurant/mall/whatever. There are teams that pull one hour drives one-way weekly, a short drive to their hotel is the least of their worries.
When I was younger my Bantam B level provincials were held in Minto and all of the teams (8) had to stay in hotels in Fredericton and make the drive, and that's not a short drive. So, the hotels in Fredericton benefitted, the gas station(s) in Minto benefited, and the small family restaurant in Minto definitely benefited. Having to drive to and from was a pain but the local economy still gained even though we weren't actually staying in Minto. People have to make the drive from their hotel(s) to the rink(s) whether they like to or not. A five/ten minute drive within a city is nothing.
I completely agree with your sentiment, I just don't see the LBR as a viable option. The fourplex should be built somewhere within the central area of the city, and accessible by transit, and etc. etc. I'd fight just as hard against a fourplex being built out in the woods on Loch Lomond/Latimer Lake/Golden Grove Road as I am against you re: expansion of LBR. The LBR is a fine arena as it stands and shouldn't be messed with.
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