Meeting next week, city councillors will be making some big decisions about where a potential events centre/arena will be located.
Estimated to cost between $80 million and $100 million, the new facility will replace the aging Sudbury Arena on Elgin Street downtown. While voting last month to proceed to the next step of the process, council also voted to strike a committee to determine the best location for the facility.
Some people want it to remain downtown, Wolves owner Dario Zulich is proposing to build it on land he owns on The Kingsway, while the South End has also been mentioned as a possible location.
At their April 11 meeting, councillors will be asked to choose from a variety of options to create what's being called a “event centre site evaluation matrix.”
In plain terms, that means they are being asked to decide what priorities should be used to pick the best site. The first option would make cost and economic impact the most important factors, with parking and access deemed extremely important, followed by vision, complimentary benefits, ease of development and city building after that.
Option two would make cost, economic impact, parking and access of highest importance, while complimentary benefits and ease of development would be extremely important. Vision and city building would be important, but last on the list.
Option three would make cost, economic impact and parking of highest importance, while complimentary benefits, access and ease of development would be extremely important and vision and city building would be last on the list.
Option four would prioritize cost and economic impact, with the remaining factors of secondary importance.
The site evaluation committee includes consultant Rod Bidulka and members of the city's economic development, planning and leisure services departments.
An RFP for the centre is due in June. The city recently held a meeting on debt financing, and Mayor Brian Bigger said at the time that the arena would be one of the projects eligible should council decide to go that route.
