Arena for Debate

By now every Edmontonian is likely aware that Daryl Katz wants to build a new arena to replace Rexall (Northlands) Arena and that he wants to build it in Downtown Edmonton; I couldn't agree more. Edmonton's City Council seems split on this, with Mayor Mandel a strong supporter of the idea while many council members are on the fence or openly opposed to it.

I would like to take this opportunity to state the reasons why I support the Downtown arena along with a conditional investment of municipal funds to build it.

One main point against the proposed downtown arena project is that the City of Edmonton has been asked to help fund the project by Daryl Katz, owner of the Edmonton Oilers and potential owner of a new Edmonton Arena. Mr. Katz is by all accounts a billionaire who could build an arena with no help from the city, outside of zoning and permit approvals, and have his hockey team play there in perpetuity. Unfortunately if we force

My feeling is that a properly designed arena, which includes 7 day a week retail, commercial, hospitality, can help downtown Edmonton thrive and grow.

Downtown Edmonton draws tens of thousands of people in every day for work. If a new arena can provide a destination for these people during the workday as well as at night

A lot of the naysayers are showing a lack of vision - assuming that any arena project is only an arena project - this is where some progressive thinking and imagination is required. The current iteration of Rexall Place is the old vision of what cities want and need - a single purpose destination which does sit empty a lot of time. The concessions, the retail, even the parking lot at Northlands are a waste of space and energy a significant portion of the time because we chose to locate the arena in it's own 'district'. We can repeat the same mistake again out of spite against Katz or we can put all our heads together and figure out how to build a downtown arena which creates business in the area rather than siphoning it off to some single purpose arena power centre (think South Common - now look at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, same difference).

We talk about getting people downtown but that won't be accomplished any more efficiently by NOT giving people a reason to be there than by at least trying.