Skip to content

If not now, when? - Darren MacDonald

Most anyone who has lived in Sudbury for any length of time has good memories of Sudbury Arena. I remember watching a young Randy Carlyle and, later, Mike Foligno play for the Sudbury Wolves.
Most anyone who has lived in Sudbury for any length of time has good memories of Sudbury Arena.

I remember watching a young Randy Carlyle and, later, Mike Foligno play for the Sudbury Wolves. I saw my first big-time concert there, Alice Cooper, in the 1980s.

While the arena has its charms, even as a young teen watching a concert, I could tell the sound was awful.

I saw the Tragically Hip a few years back, and while the sound was better than I remembered, I couldn’t make out a word when Gord Downie tried to address the crowd. He sounded like one of those muffled adults in a Charlie Brown special.

Some big acts have given Sudbury a pass because the arena can’t handle their sound systems.

And issues go beyond sound. Not long ago, a light crashed to the ground – thankfully, a few hours before a concert, so no one was hurt.

There are major accessibility issues with the elevator, which would be extremely expensive to address. And there are a host of other issues that come when your main arena is decades past its prime.

No doubt we need a new arena, so the question becomes, when? The reality is, there is never a good time.

There are always roads and other infrastructure that need fixing, taxes are always too high and, as politicians will tell you, every municipal budget is the most difficult in the city’s history.

However, over the next 10 years, Sudbury’s economy is expected to be about as strong as it has been in decades.

Plenty of corporate money is coming to town, and there is good reason to hope the private sector would contribute to the cost of a new OHL arena.

Most important is the casino development coming to Sudbury, which is expected to bring with it a number of amenities wherever it is built.

There has been plenty of negative noise in the city about the impact of the casino, and I’m no expert on the topic and won’t pretend to be.

But if Sudbury is getting a casino with amenities no matter what, it’s difficult to imagine a better opportunity to piggyback on a development.

Some say it’s unrealistic to think a developer like Caesars Entertainment – which is interested in building a casino here – will build us a new rink just because they’re swell people.

That may be true, although I think the private sector is in a better position to decide where to spend its money.

But Caesars has already said they’re not interested in just a casino — they’re looking at a major urban development project, something that will draw people in and become a destination.

Unlike some amentities — an arts centre or a convention centre, for example — arenas can make money, or at least come close to breaking even.

A new facility would attract more acts, we could potentially host some major curling events or figure skating championships — all events that bring people to town, something that would also benefit the casino developers.

At the very least, the developers could be expected to cost-share with the city on a new Sudbury Arena. If you put a surcharge on tickets, we could potentially pay for a new arena build without adding to the current tax burden.

While a new rink need not be quite as no-frills as the Sault’s $25-million Essar Arena, the Sault example proves you don’t have to spend $100 million to get a quality OHL arena.

And with the casino development expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, this is the time for the city to work out a deal to get a new arena at minimal cost to taxpayers.

It’s something this city needs, and it’s tough to imagine better circumstances.

It’s an opportunity that likely won’t come again in our lifetimes.

Darren MacDonald is Northern Life’s city hall reporter. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @darrenmacd.

Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.




Darren MacDonald

About the Author: Darren MacDonald

Read more