City Needs Champion

Examples include downtown Los Angeles. Rosentraub described the pre-Staples Center city core as “a place you went either to commit a crime or be the victim of a crime.” But with the arrival of the centre, “bathed in purple and gold light,” the area became a tourist destination, then a noted architectural district with the construction of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall and the spectacular 12-storey Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. For its part, San Diego saved its small-market Padres from sagging attendance by creating a ballpark district that brought in more than $2 billion in real estate development. It was accessible enough to draw people from the surrounding counties. Attendance at games soared. And – the example that probably bears the closest resemblance to Edmonton – Indianapolis was a standard-issue Midwest city until the Conseco Fieldhouse and its surrounding urban neighbourhood overhauled the city’s image, giving residents a place to gather while showcasing the city’s sports identity. Rosentraub closed his presentation with a question that lingered long after the conference wrapped up: “What does Edmonton want?”

ACCORDING to the Radke report, Edmonton is expected to reach a population of 1.9 million by 2041. Calgary’s estimates put it at 1.23 million by 2033. From the facilities’ perspective, it’s time to start planning for those numbers since the leases for both the Oilers and the Flames are up in 2014.

Both Rexall Place and the Pengrowth Saddledome fall short of the NHL’s current standards, which require about 18,000 seats, 90 suites and 750,000 square feet. Edmonton’s coliseum, the third-oldest and second-smallest arena in the league, has only 16,871 seats, 63 suites and 516,428 square feet. Calgary sits at 19,289 seats and 78 suites. Just 1,500 more seats – over the course of a 40-game hockey season – could net the Oilers roughly an additional $6 million a year, says Jerry Bouma, chair of the board at Northlands, the not-for-profit organization that runs Rexall Place arena. “That’s two or three marquee players.”

Meanwhile, the current coliseums’ merchandising is crammed into corners. And backstage, space is limited. In that department, Calgary is worse off than Edmonton.

Last year, the Pengrowth Saddledome couldn’t host acts like Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban because of weight load and other technical requirements for the larger-than-life shows.

“And there’s no place for people to sort of mill around and network or meet friends and customers,” says Patrick LaForge, president and CEO of the Oilers and director of Edmonton’s chamber of commerce. “There’s very little opportunity for that after the game’s on. The building is full just about every night and it takes the whole period just to make the track route around the concourse.”

When the time came to assemble a committee to study the feasibility of a new arena, Mayor Mandel politely excused himself, saying he favoured a downtown arena and was already too biased to serve. That was April 2007. Lyle Best, the president and CEO of QuikCard Solutions, as well as a board member of Northlands and the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation was asked to chair. The nine-member, mayor-appointed group was made up of Oilers executives, a former ATB CEO, a former chairman of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and several board members from Northlands.
The mandate: come up with a plan that wouldn’t include property tax increases.

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