New Years Resolution – Council Needs To Stop Talking, And Finally Make An Arena Happen… Read An Annoying Long History
Memorial Arena
“We’ve also seen the need for that ultimate ice complex to replace two failing buildings,” said Mayor Randy Hope in 2011. “Do we wait or activate now? We need to be more visionary and say, “Can we wait until the foundation crumbles, or do we start building a new foundation for the future?”
Well that question has been answered, council chose to wait…and wait. And we’re still waiting. Needless to say at this point, with staff, plans, council meetings, administrative time, consultations, travel, studies, and more, Chatham-Kent has spent in the millions on looking and talking with no action.
In 2013, a report was presented to council regarding the construction of a new twin-pad arena in Chatham-Kent, including a 5000+ seat arena capable of housing an OHL team. The arena complex would cost in the $32-45 million, and would be completed by 2015.
The same year council passed a motion to develop a business plan to build a new arena
Zzzzzzz.
Heading into the 2014 election, most council and mayoral candidates were vocal advocates for a new arena, including now Mayor, then Council candidate Darrin Canniff, “We need to continue updating current facilities and look at a new arena and indoor sports facility. Many local residents see the quality of recreational facilities in other similar sized or smaller communities and question why Chatham-Kent hasn’t made these type of investments.”
“With aging sports related infrastructure we need to focus on strategic renewal in order to avoid escalating costs in the future,” said fellow candidate and current councillor Brock McGregor in 2014. “Facility renewal cannot be continually delayed, it is an issue we need to address in the near future.”
The next calendar year, in 2014, Chatham-Kent lost out on luring the Plymouth Whalers to Chatham. Why?
We found out in 2015. No plan for an arena, even though council voted 21 months prior to move forward with a plan for an arena.
“Peter Karmanos said political will to build a new rink in Chatham is what ultimately killed the potential move of Plymouth,” reports stated, with Karmanos being the owner of the Whalers.
Later in 2015, council heard a report from administration urging Council not to pursue an OHL sized arena, but the same report did recommend spending $55,000 on an Arena Feasibility Study. Council later split a 9-9 vote on the topic of an arena.
Getting bored of reading yet? We aren’t done.
Thankfully, 2016 gave us a quiet period, where it was actually arena closures that council was discussing, with Bothwell Arena being placed on the chopping block, as council planned to close the facility (which remains open).
In 2017, citizens began the discussion again, including this one by Ben Labadie that garnered considerable online support.
And so, in his 2017 Mayoral address, of course Randy Hope said we needed a new multi-pad arena – “Residents come to me all the time and ask why can’t we do it here. Chatham has one of the oldest arenas in Canada. We need to look at the consolidation of our operating costs.”
In 2018, Hope doubled down, explaining plans for a new twin-pad arena on the former Navistar site.
Only days later Council heard a report from CAO Don Shropshire on funding for a new twin-pad arena, stating both Provincial and Federal funding was needed, or there would be no arena.
Council then voted 13-1 to explore (yes, the exact same requests as in 2015) the cost, funding, and size of an arena.
Hold on, I’m going to step out of the DeLorean and look for a lightning bolt to bring me back to the future again.
Then the 2018 election happened.
New mayor Darrin Canniff had this to say about a new arena, A new twin-pad arena for Chatham-Kent is long overdue. We cannot be seen as an innovative and thriving community if we continue to accept the fact that “past their due date” facilities are adequate for our citizens and acceptable to those scrutinizing our community for investment purposes. Council has much of the information needed to make an informed decision on whether to replace the aging Memorial and Erickson arenas with a state of the art facility. It is time to act.”
It is time to act.
Then, still in 2018, Shropshire presented findings to the new council, stating a complex would now cost up to $56 million, with 2,200 to 4,200 seats.
Interesting considering our new complex with 5,200 seats to be completed in 2015 as recommended in 2013 would have cost $48-million.
Things are getting more expensive…for less.
With it of course, we’ll also be losing two arenas in Erickson and Memorial.
In 2019, the Municipality held arena open houses, put out a survey, and discussed more with the community.
Then in 2019, the Municipality unveiled plans for a $63.8-million complex, pending higher level government funding, with council passing a vote 13-4 to look at option for a 2,200 or 4,000 seat arena…aka, still no consensus.
And things are still getting more expensive, and we still have no action.
Other than more discussions by council, and more votes…including one promising one that looked at a specific property, the Navistar location…circa a few years and a few ideas and a few votes, and a few reports, and discussions, and studies ago. Although anyone who knows the site, knows there will be more studies, and reports to come.
And now, the calendar is flipping to 2020.
As the clock ticked to the New Year, Canniff spoke to citizens, and again addressed the arena, which right now is in a holding pattern until Provincial and Federal funding come…which will then follow long consultation again.
We get it, we need to get it right, but we need to get it at all before we get it right.
All we can do as residents is hope that this annoyingly long list is about to end. That council will stop talking and just move forward. Every discussion and every report that is reporting and discussing the same things we’ve been reporting on and discussing for a decade is time and money gone to waste.
If in 2021, we are copying and pasting this article with added links and more spinning of wheels, it will be time for an upheaval, for our administration and council to hear from the sports community that we are tired of waiting. That we’ve watched children grow playing hockey, skating, and ringette, and move away, hearing broken promises from their community about the investments they were going to make.
Happy 2020. This. Will. Be. The. Year.