Step 1 – Making room for a downtown arena
I am not really a hockey fan. Sure, I’ll take in a game from time to time and like almost everyone, I’ll jump on the band-wagon of a playoff run. But I am a fan of a vibrant city core, where we see increased night-time entertainment amenities and increased downtown employment. I also think that investment in amenities which compliment our existing downtown assets like transit facilities, the new Art Gallery, Churchill Square, and Library and Arts facilities is good financial and planning policy.
Last nights Oiler’s game was a bust on the ice, but it was the economic and cultural opportunity AFTER the game that was the real loss. After the game, I was driving my host back downtown to his office, and as we drove through Churchill square we both commented about how there should have been 15,000 people pouring into these quiet streets of our downtown core. We talked about the massive success that Grey Cup was this year, and how the way the Square and downtown filled with people every night was a huge part of that success.
My good friend, and one of Edmonton’s biggest fans, Randy Ferguson has a saying.
“Where goes your downtown, so goes your city”
Randy is right. I consider visits to other cities around the World, no matter the size, those which I love to visit. They all have vibrant, walkable city cores, where I can shop, eat, drink and be entertained. Do it yourself. think about your favourite cities, now think about what part of the city you are immediately drawn to. It will almost certainly be the core of the city.
So, as you can tell, I am very much behind moving our arena, and it’s premier tenant the Oilers, downtown. There has been a lot of typical debate about such a thing, and mostly because the debate includes many financial ramifications that need to be considered.
I am not qualified to comment on how the arena gets financed. But I am certain that IF the Oilers are adamant about needing a new home, them I want that home to be downtown.
On Tuesday January 18th, our City Council will have to make the first of many complicated decisions about this project. On the agenda will be an application to zone the lands owned by the Katz Group for the Arena and an Entertainment district. I hope that council helps the discussion move forward, by supporting this application. Of course how the arena is paid for, or who operates it, will be discussions that we need to have as a City (undoubtedly some civic funding will be needed), but let’s get this first step put behind us.
Zone the land for the Arena.
Co-Founder of two beautiful daughters and 