Ottawa Senators LeBreton Arena | 11 Acres | In Planning

[phil235]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

Sorry, are you trying to say that out off all the people working in the CBD, Hull and Tunneys plus the other office towers around Preston nobody is going to stick around for a game when they have tickets?

It’s a huge generalization to say public servants finish work at 4:30. I’m guessing he is not familiar with PCO/PMO/TreasuryBoard/Finance etc where huge swaths of employees work hours that are equivalent to or exceed private sector hours. Or all of the crowns and agencies based downtown with similar hours. Or all of the law firms, accounting firms, etc based downtown. There are all sorts of people who work downtown and will stick around for dinner and a game, myself included.

[Djeffery]

Not to mention some people will just simply work later until such time they feel like heading over to the game. I even know people like that in little old London here who work downtown and hang out at the office before an event at the downtown arena.

[harls]

Originally Posted by ponyboycurtis

Getting a restaurant/entertainment district around the arena would be quite helpful in this regard. Currently only Preston street makes sense for foot traffic.

I could see Zibi taking off.. and maybe vieux Hull / Promenade du Portage filling up again on game days.

[rdaner]

I find it amusing how some people view urban life in your city in a downtown to work and suburbs to live way. Quaint! Maybe that is how it has operated until now. However the introduction of a rail system and increasing residential density in the wider central area will blur this binary pattern and travel patterns.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by phil235

It’s a huge generalization to say public servants finish work at 4:30. I’m guessing he is not familiar with PCO/PMO/TreasuryBoard/Finance etc where huge swaths of employees work hours that are equivalent to or exceed private sector hours. Or all of the crowns and agencies based downtown with similar hours. Or all of the law firms, accounting firms, etc based downtown. There are all sorts of people who work downtown and will stick around for dinner and a game, myself included.

Central agencies and staffers are are a minuscule share of the public service. They aren’t even noticeable on the roads or on transit.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by rdaner

I find it amusing how some people view urban life in your city in a downtown to work and suburbs to live way. Quaint! Maybe that is how it has operated until now. However the introduction of a rail system and increasing residential density in the wider central area will blur this binary pattern and travel patterns.

Very much so. And the demographics of those who attend games at the CTC (e.g. a lot of families) are such because of the niche the CTC has carved out in it's 28 year existence due to factors like its location, ticket prices, and so on. That doesn't mean you need the same demographics to translate 1:1 to the new arena to achieve success.

Regardless of Ottawa's PS-heavy workforce, it's pretty much a sure bet that the new arena will draw a similar type of crowd as other cities. Less families (on weeknights) and more groups of office workers, young urban residents, tourists, business travellers, Gatineau residents, etc.

But of course, O-Train Stage 2 (which should be complete by the time the arena is built) will lend a huge helping hand to suburban residents wishing to attend weeknight games too. A 30 min train ride on a line that runs at 5-10 min frequencies and that isn't subject to gameday traffic in the arena's vicinity is a lot different than counting on a bus, which in Ottawa's case would run 2-4x an hour barring cancellations if you lucky and get bogged down in traffic within 2km of the arena. It's completely doable for a gov worker to leave work at 4:30, take the O-Train home to McKellar Park for example, have dinner and pick up the kids before heading back to Lebreton with time to spare before puck drop.

The Lebreton arena would easily sell out 41/41 home games at today's CTC ticket prices. Of course, expect ticket prices to approach league average once the new arena is open (by which time hopefully the Sens have begun to have some on-ice success).

[phil235]

Originally Posted by acottawa

Central agencies and staffers are are a minuscule share of the public service. They aren’t even noticeable on the roads or on transit.

Do you have any numbers to back this up? And how exactly would you notice central agency staffers on roads or transit?

I don’t know how many Department of Finance and TBS staff are downtown, but it’s thousands. Same with the Department of Justice (also not a workplace that shuts at 4:30). Between EDC, CBC, the Bank of Canada, OSFI etc. you are looking at 5000 plus employees. And then you have the big law firms, the KPMGs, Deloittes etc. Not negligible by any stretch.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by phil235

Do you have any numbers to back this up? And how exactly would you notice central agency staffers on roads or transit?

I don’t know how many Department of Finance and TBS staff are downtown, but it’s thousands. Same with the Department of Justice (also not a workplace that shuts at 4:30). Between EDC, CBC, the Bank of Canada, OSFI etc. you are looking at 5000 plus employees. And then you have the big law firms, the KPMGs, Deloittes etc. Not negligible by any stretch.

Yup, my firm's office only starts to thin out at 5:30pm, and by the time I leave work, downtown is far from a ghost town. And when I'm trying to get 9 holes in after work in the middle of summer when sunset is later, there's still plenty of traffic to contend with at 6 - 6:30pm on the way to the course.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Say you finish work at 4:30pm. By the time you pack up, meet up with friends, find a watering hole, place and order and get served, it’s 5pm. Maybe 5:15pm if you’ve ordered food. You spend just over an hour at your pregame spot before settling up and heading out around 6:15 - 6:30. Add in another 20 min to hop on the O-Train, head to Pimisi, and make the short walk to the arena gives you just enough time to get through security and grab another pint before a 7pm puck drop.

Calling it a 3 hour bender is a bit of a stretch. Seems like a complete non-issue, and keep in mind, many people downtown actually do work until 5-6pm (hence why rush hour goes til 6:30pm).

Combine that with the fact that most games (even on weekdays) in cities with downtown areas (like Toronto and Montreal) start at 7:00, not 7:30 and it becomes even more feasible for silly servants to go to games after work. I suspect that 7:30 starts are to make it easier for silly servants to travel out to Kanata.

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Combine that with the fact that most games (even on weekdays) in cities with downtown areas (like Toronto and Montreal) start at 7:00, not 7:30 and it becomes even more feasible for silly servants to go to games after work. I suspect that 7:30 starts are to make it easier for silly servants to travel out to Kanata.

Even here in Ottawa we haven't had 7:30pm starts in a while. Been mostly 7pm at least since covid, maybe longer

[Djeffery]

I just counted on the Toronto home schedule 17 7pm starts and 10 730pm starts on weeknights. By contrast, I only saw 3 730pm starts in Ottawa.

[AuxTown]

The 7:30 starts were to space out rush hour and game traffic. This doesn't work in Toronto because "rush hour" is like 6 hours. And Ottawa traffic has been generally very mild since COVID so we went back to the 7pm starts. I wonder if we will see more 7:30s with the increase in return to in-person work?

I was thinking of how many people I know and businesses I have friends at that are along the LRT. I will have plenty of places to park along the Western LRT to hop on the train into town....can't wait!

[hwy418]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

Say you finish work at 4:30pm. By the time you pack up, meet up with friends, find a watering hole, place and order and get served, it’s 5pm. Maybe 5:15pm if you’ve ordered food. You spend just over an hour at your pregame spot before settling up and heading out around 6:15 - 6:30. Add in another 20 min to hop on the O-Train, head to Pimisi, and make the short walk to the arena gives you just enough time to get through security and grab another pint before a 7pm puck drop.

Calling it a 3 hour bender is a bit of a stretch. Seems like a complete non-issue, and keep in mind, many people downtown actually do work until 5-6pm (hence why rush hour goes til 6:30pm).

And there's the warm-up where players hit the ice about 30 mins before the game. I like to catch that too. Working till 5pm to catch a 7pm game on a weeknight is perfect.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

The 7:30 starts were to space out rush hour and game traffic. This doesn't work in Toronto because "rush hour" is like 6 hours.

On top of that, with a downtown arena the traffic to the game is contra flow, so spacing it out doesn't really matter.

Originally Posted by AuxTown

And Ottawa traffic has been generally very mild since COVID so we went back to the 7pm starts. I wonder if we will see more 7:30s with the increase in return to in-person work?

Possibly, especially for games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, when traffic is worst. Things still seem quiet on Mondays and Fridays (at least in Kanata it is).

[rocketphish]

Ottawa Senators embark on business community outreach as plans for LeBreton take shape

Marissa Galko, OBJ
October 29, 2024

In the wake of the agreement between the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission that could pave the way for a new arena at LeBreton Flats, the NHL team is turning its attention to working with the local business community to solidify relationships. In an interview Monday with OBJ, Erin Crowe said the ultimate goal is to ensure that, when people think of Ottawa-Gatineau, they think of the Ottawa Senators.

Crowe juggles many roles with the Senators, as executive vice-president and chief financial officer and, as of 2023, chief operations officer. If anyone knows what’s going on with the Sens, it’s Crowe.

She says that Senators CEO and president Cyril Leeder and Michael Andlauer, the team’s owner since 2023, have been clear that the city’s business community is important to the organization.

In an interview with OBJ last September, Leeder said one of his – and the team’s – most important jobs was going to be “establishing stronger relationships with local businesses.” The ownership change has only accelerated the focus on strengthening those relationships, Crowe added. “Having an NHL team in the city is certainly something we should all be very proud of. It helps us attract and retain talent. It enables our businesses to have a platform for showcasing some of the things they’re doing and engage with the team,” Crowe said.

A key part of that is for the Senators to have a new home downtown. Now, with Andlauer at the helm, the long-awaited move seems to be materializing. On Sept. 20, the NCC agreed to sell 10 acres of land at LeBreton Flats to Capital Sports and Development Inc., the corporation representing the Senators, to build a new arena. Crowe says that, with a potential move downtown, the team will be looking for feedback from the business community on what it wants to see, both inside and outside the arena.

“I think the interactions with local businesses will only deepen … How do our business partners want to engage with their customers in a new arena? What types of advertising properties and interactive properties are they going to want to see in a new building?” Crowe said. Similar to many people in the business community, Crowe says the new arena could be a catalyst for Ottawa’s downtown revitalization. She points out that new rinks have rejuvenated downtowns in other Canadian cities, such as when the Edmonton Oilers moved to a new arena in the Alberta capital’s ICE district in 2016. “Being at LeBreton, in a location that is directly connected to our LRT system and adjacent to the downtown core, it’s easy to get to. There’ll be an entertainment district or plaza around the arena for people to gather and bring a new dimension to the downtown area that you see in other cities. We’d also be looking at retail and restaurants and entertainment built around the area, for sure,” she said. Conversations with local businesses have become easier post-ownership change, she added. “We’ve got an owner who is very committed to this city. He’s got the pulse on what’s happening in Ottawa. We also have a local component to our ownership group … they’re out there telling the story of the Senators,” she said. Those conversations recently led to securing what Crowe calls “key partnerships” with two Ottawa-based tech companies, Kinaxis and Calian Group, which sponsor the team’s helmets and road jerseys, respectively.

“It’s been a great success for us. I was talking to Kevin Ford (CEO of Calian Group) a couple of weeks ago and he said he knew (the partnership with the Senators) would be well-received within their team, but he didn’t realize how excited they were to have that partnership in place. I think it’s carrying a testament to the value of that partnership,” she said. The Senators also recently announced CIBC as a key partner, with a multi-year agreement for the bank’s logo to appear on the players’ home jerseys and CIBC making a $500,000 donation to the Senators Community Foundation. Crowe says she believes businesses are finding it easier to engage with the team, from corporate partnerships to season seats and Club Bell, which allows customers to have premium seats, among other perks. When it comes to the businesses the Sens want to continue engaging with, Crowe says there are ongoing conversations with companies in the tech sector and other Ottawa-based businesses, as well as with the local management teams at bigger companies like Molson, Canadian Tire and Coca-Cola. Crowe said the NHL team is equally determined to strengthen relationships with businesses and residents in Gatineau.

Earlier this month, the Senators announced the launch of a “community cabinet,” made up of members of the anglophone, francophone and Indigenous communities to foster a stronger sense of community within the team’s fan base.

Members include Claudette Commanda, chancellor of the University of Ottawa and Algonquin elder; Jim Durrell, who served as mayor of Ottawa from 1985-1991 and the first president of the Ottawa Senators in 1990; Martin Paquette, founder and CEO of Groupe Nordik; Wanda Thusky, who runs Decontie Construction and is a member of Algonquin-Anishinabeg Nation; and Kirby Whiteduck, author and former chief of Pikwàkanagàn.

The cabinet will offer the team feedback on its upcoming Indigenous Culture Celebration night on Nov. 14. The event allows various Indigenous artists to showcase their crafts, from handcrafted items to musical performances before the game.

The Senators Community Foundation has also supported Indigenous youth by creating opportunities for participation in sport and providing sport equipment donated by fans. “The community cabinet is really intended to continue to deepen relationships with different communities, and we’ve also put a very focused working group on the Gatineau side,” Crowe said. “We are involved with the (Regroupement des gens d’affaires de la capital nationale) and the Gatineau Chamber of Commerce. We’ve implemented some of the feedback from the working group within the arena to really try and make it easy for people from Gatineau to come and experience the Sens.”

Crowe believes that outreach to the business community on both sides of the Ottawa River will not only strengthen the Senators, but will help boost other local businesses as well. “It’s the right thing to do for our community, our business community, and our overall Ottawa-Gatineau community as a whole.”

– with files from David Sali

https://obj.ca/ottawa-senators-busin...on-take-shape/

[Spoonsy]

https://i.imgur.com/dDHoLYm.jpeg

soil samples? I saw them out in the field directly north of Preston yesterday and today they're over in the OC lot by Bayview

[SL123]

Was it ever confirmed by the Sens or the NCC what extra piece of land was added to the original event centre parcel?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SL123

Was it ever confirmed by the Sens or the NCC what extra piece of land was added to the original event centre parcel?

No, never. The Bayview triangle would be too small for it to add up, so I imagine it's the one block east.

[J.OT13]

Before seeing the Senators, Gary Bettman will meet with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe

Bettman and owner Michael Andlauer will sit down with Sutcliffe to discuss what role the municipal government can play in the club's project to build a new arena at LeBreton Flats.

Bruce Garrioch, Ottawa Citizen
Published Nov 18, 2024

Gary Bettman will stop downtown before heading to the Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday night.

The National Hockey League commissioner will be in town Tuesday to speak at a luncheon with the Senators’ owner, Michael Andlauer, at the National Arts Centre, which is put on by the Ottawa Board of Trade.

Bettman will also be in attendance when the club takes on Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

After they speak with some of the city’s business leaders, Bettman and Andlauer will sit down with Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to discuss what role the municipal government can play in the club’s project to build a new arena at LeBreton Flats.

The Senators and the National Capital Commission announced an agreement in principle on Sept. 20 between the two sides for the club to purchase 10 acres of land at LeBreton.

The club and NCC officials are focused on getting the paperwork finished to complete the sale sometime in the New Year. But the Senators are also trying to determine how they’ll pay for the new events centre, which will cost more than $1.1 billion to complete.

The decision by Bettman to meet with Sutcliffe isn’t just a courtesy call.

The Senators help drive the economy in this city and make a huge financial impact. Look no further than the growth of Kanata since the Senators moved there in 1996 if you want to find evidence.

The people in NHL’s head office in New York and at the Senators’ headquarters at the Canadian Tire Centre believe a move to LeBreton Flats will help make the city more of a destination.

Look no further than the impact the six Taylor Swift concerts at the Rogers Centre in Toronto have made in that city. All the hotels are booked, and people are flocking downtown because they want to be part of it.

Forty-one game nights a year with people heading to LeBreton Flats after wrapping up their workday will bring people into the downtown area and will provide much-needed dollars for business owners

The NHL and Andlauer strongly believe that if this project is going to be successful then all three levels of government — federal, provincial and local — will have to play a role to help make the dream a reality.

There’s no question that everybody wants this to happen, but now the league, the Senators and the NCC officials need to dig down on how to get to the point where shovels can be put in the ground.

The plan all along has been to engage with city officials, but Sutcliffe has made it clear in the past that he’s not a fan of having public money fund this project because he knows he’ll face opposition from taxpayers.

Still, there are ways that City Hall can play a role.

Senators president Cyril Leeder has said that Andlauer and the Senators have no desire to have the taxpayers fund a new arena. They understand there’s no appetite for that to happen, but they do believe there is room for negotiation with Sutcliffe about possible scenarios.

Andlauer and Leeder have cited the structure used to negotiate Public Private Partnerships (P3s) for the Bell Sensplex and the Richcraft Sensplex. He said those have been successful.

That’s also a scenario the city negotiated with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group for Lansdowne Park.

“We’ve had some success with the Sensplex. That’s a way where the city participated but it didn’t cost the taxpayer any money. That’s a good model and they’ve helped,” Leeder told Postmedia in September. “If you ask the city if they’re happy with the Sensplex, it didn’t cost them any capital or any operating costs and there’s probably been hundreds of millions of dollars spent on both those buildings by now.

“That’s a good result. It would be a different model for a major entertainment centre, but I think that’s the kind of example that we need to look at. We need to figure out how do we do this and not cost the taxpayers to get something done as quickly as we can.”

You can also be certain the league and the Senators will be quick to point out the role that the city has played in Lansdowne 2.0 with OSEG.

In April, this city council gave the green light to spending $419.5 million to upgrade Lansdowne Park. The project includes a new 5,500-seat arena for the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s and a new North Side stand at TD Place Stadium for the Canadian Football League’s RedBlacks.

The project was met with a lot of opposition but the city opted to go ahead with it anyway by a 19-6 vote and Sutcliffe was among the backers. The city is locked into a partnership with OSEG and the only choice was to go ahead with the project.

The NHL and the Senators won’t be asking the city of Ottawa to pay the freight for a new arena, but they do want Sutcliffe and the city council to play a role in something that it will benefit from greatly.

https://ottawacitizen.com/ottawa-sen...Breton%20Flats.

[J.OT13]

This image has the caption "Aerial view of the NCC land which was sold to the Ottawa Senators at LeBreton Flats in Ottawa Monday.". Doubt much of the land involved is actually in that image.