The ideas and suggestions were widely varied, but the overarching message was unanimously in favour of keeping the Sudbury Arena intact.
The Sudbury Arts Council held a public meeting on Jan. 18 at the Sudbury Arena to take in suggestions on what the future should hold for the downtown arena.
Mike Ladyk of 3rd Line Studio Architecture and Gerry Labelle facilitated the meeting and fielded suggestions and ideas from an audience of nearly 50 people with respect to what the arena could one day be.
Suggestions ranged from a roller derby rink, to a 1,000 seat symphony hall with office space, to a year-round farmer's market, to a conference/convention centre, to a library, to restaurants.
There were also a number of residents in attendance who were in favour of leaving the building as the home of the Sudbury Wolves, but improving and upgrading the current structure with more seating and more amenities.
While the suggestions covered a wide breadth from the arts to sports and beyond, the common thread was that residents did not want to see their downtown arena demolished when a new arena is built.
"I think we know that this building needs to be re-purposed (if it's not going to be an arena)," said Labelle. "The city's population hasn't changed since 1967, why are we building all of these new things when it's far less expensive to re-purpose what we already have?"
Wednesday evening's meetings may have been a microcosm of the city as a whole with the varying ideas being bandied about, as indicated by Mike Ladyk.
"There's a lot of fragmented groups out there with different opinions on what should be done with the arena," said Ladyk. "We want to get the conversation started with people who may not be included and see what comes out of it and what can be done. I think what we got out of this meeting was that people don't want the arena just to be torn down, they want it to be re-purposed for something."
The meeting's attendees were as varied as the ideas themselves as there was a wide range of age groups on-hand, which Labelle says didn't go unnoticed.
"I was glad to see so many young people come out tonight," said Labelle.
"It's important to adapt the city to the people in the city. This isn't going to be for old guys like me so we have to be making sure that we're putting something in place for younger generations."
