A new rink in Monton?

[SteveUL]

buckybuckbuck said:

Expand for 20 million rather that build for 50. You could blow out both ends and add a ground level entrance off the parking lot with escalators. Or my favorite, rotate/raise the roof on one and or both sides. It already looks designed for it... all kinds of possibilities. If it only costs half then its like building a new rink for half the price. Parking can be expanded over by the Sept 11 street into the woods and again in the back. We've gone through this all before. It should be done. The current design is an embarrassment. A proud of itself city is a growing city.

Q. What is that Government building in the middle and why is it there? Can't it go somewhere else. Also why is there a street in the middle of the parking lot with drivers trying to run over people going to a hockey game? Very strange.

Where does the team play while the roof is off and being rebuilt ? Will they complete that work in 4 months ... May to August ... I would think that effort would take the better part of a year.

There comes a time where you have to stop putting large amounts of money into an old facility (34 yrs now ?) and start over. I don't think that day is here yet ... but it is coming. I would expect that in 10 yrs we will be a new building.

[jimmy]

steveul said:

I would expect that in 10 yrs we will be a new building.

Hence why they are starting to talk about it now - these things tend to move quite slowly...

[milo]

steveul said:

If you force me to sit in the corners vs sitting in the upper deck in the middle of the rink ... I probably won't go. I sit 4 rows up in the upper deck, in between the blue lines ... best seats in the house IMO ...

I'm with you on that, but I'm sure (at least I hope) they wouldn't make the same mistake of putting in seats on a ridiculously low incline.... sightlines at the Coliseum are dreadful, there are maybe 1000 good seats out of 6500 IMO... I actually prefer standing room over anything in there.

I'd be more than happy to get a season ticket in the corners if they built something like this:

www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=279975629&size=l

www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1579271009&size=o

[buckybuckbuck]

The knee room is the biggest problems. Some rows ok others terrible. When I first started to attend Wildcats games I had to get over the cramped seating. I never have however really as I stand to watch most games or my season seat is in the back row of the lower bowl that has the most knee room.

[SteveUL]

buckybuckbuck said:

The knee room is the biggest problems. Some rows ok others terrible. When I first started to attend Wildcats games I had to get over the cramped seating. I never have however really as I stand to watch most games or my season seat is in the back row of the lower bowl that has the most knee room.

Anybody sitting in the corner in any rink is missing 1/3 to 2/3 of the game.

[rowcfanatic]

If we have a new or expanded rink , the most important thing is LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. A new rink in an easy acccessible location by public transit, and walk in traffic from downtown hotels, close to bars, etc. would increase walk-in, bus traffic by a large amount, whether it be hockey or some other event. And well designed with Corporate boxes should not really cost more than $30 Million, excluding land costs. this appears to be a more economic project than the aquatic centre in Dieppe, or a Convention Centre that other levels of Government do not seem to want to support with dough.
Let's at least give it some consideration, and urge our politicians to consider.

[CatsFan]

I would like to see a new rink.. and something accessible. A downtown rink would be nice.. but I don't know where it could go.. maybe a rink in Dieppe? I could see that.

[SteveUL]

rowcfanatic said:

If we have a new or expanded rink , the most important thing is LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. A new rink in an easy acccessible location by public transit, and walk in traffic from downtown hotels, close to bars, etc. would increase walk-in, bus traffic by a large amount, whether it be hockey or some other event. And well designed with Corporate boxes should not really cost more than $30 Million, excluding land costs. this appears to be a more economic project than the aquatic centre in Dieppe, or a Convention Centre that other levels of Government do not seem to want to support with dough.
Let's at least give it some consideration, and urge our politicians to consider.

There are lots of benefits to having a downtown rink ... economic spinoffs being the biggest ... but one of the biggest problems is providing ample parking on a game/concert night. When I go to Halifax to catch a game it usually takes me 45 mins to get out of the parking garage afterwards ... and that detracts from the game night experience ... especially if you have young kids that need to get to bed.

[Dirty Afanasenkov]

A public / private partnership might help fast track a new rink. As for parking, a proper parking plan (ie: parking garage) needs to be created as well.

And for 10 000 seats, it can be done. They just need to build it right so that certain areas can be blocked off without affecting the aesthetic look of the rink. This way, it won't look 1/3rd empty when we get smaller crowds.

[Deleted]

aposter said:

A public / private partnership might help fast track a new rink. As for parking, a proper parking plan (ie: parking garage) needs to be created as well.

And for 10 000 seats, it can be done. They just need to build it right so that certain areas can be blocked off without affecting the aesthetic look of the rink. This way, it won't look 1/3rd empty when we get smaller crowds.

+ it should be a flat rate paid parking (except for season ticket holders as an incentive).

[SteveUL]

aposter said:

A public / private partnership might help fast track a new rink. As for parking, a proper parking plan (ie: parking garage) needs to be created as well.

And for 10 000 seats, it can be done. They just need to build it right so that certain areas can be blocked off without affecting the aesthetic look of the rink. This way, it won't look 1/3rd empty when we get smaller crowds.

The Moncton Coliseum has something like 3000 parking spaces for 6700 seat facility ... downtown Moncton currently has 1500 parking spaces ... I get that number from the guy whose job it is to count them. If they want to build a 10,000 seat facility you also have to find something like 3000 more parking spots ... a parking lot the size of the Moncton Coliseum. Good luck with that.

[curtis]

steveul said:

aposter said:

A public / private partnership might help fast track a new rink. As for parking, a proper parking plan (ie: parking garage) needs to be created as well.

And for 10 000 seats, it can be done. They just need to build it right so that certain areas can be blocked off without affecting the aesthetic look of the rink. This way, it won't look 1/3rd empty when we get smaller crowds.

The Moncton Coliseum has something like 3000 parking spaces for 6700 seat facility ... downtown Moncton currently has 1500 parking spaces ... I get that number from the guy whose job it is to count them. If they want to build a 10,000 seat facility you also have to find something like 3000 more parking spots ... a parking lot the size of the Moncton Coliseum. Good luck with that.

A new parking garage would be a necessary...but even then, you wouldn't have enough parking. Maybe if a rink was built within walking distance of Champlain Place, that would add some parking capacity, although I have no idea how a deal like that would be brokered....the mall's parking is pretty full in the winter evenings leading up to Christmas.

[Dugger]

The City is going to have a series look at a new arena in 2011, but the wild card in all this is the new gaming policy due out sometime this week, the Minister has already suggested 2 or more places could receive a Casino. Now combine that information with the fact that a convention centre is loosing some of it's luster and that leaves the door open for a Casino and new Arena to anchor a regional tourism destination.

The parking situation is semantic, it's a problem they will solve with parking garages and or parking with a bit of a walk, it's an engineering problem and they will solve it.

The city is looking to get and keep people downtown and the Casino and Arena combination has the most economic and entertainment bang for your buck there is.

[SteveUL]

dugger said:

The City is going to have a series look at a new arena in 2011, but the wild card in all this is the new gaming policy due out sometime this week, the Minister has already suggested 2 or more places could receive a Casino. Now combine that information with the fact that a convention centre is loosing some of it's luster and that leaves the door open for a Casino and new Arena to anchor a regional tourism destination.

The parking situation is semantic, it's a problem they will solve with parking garages and or parking with a bit of a walk, it's an engineering problem and they will solve it.

The city is looking to get and keep people downtown and the Casino and Arena combination has the most economic and entertainment bang for your buck there is.

OK ... I see ... so they will add 3000 parking spaces to the downtown by adding parking garages. Interesting ... So who will use these extra 3000 spaces when there is no event at the Coliseum ? You can't build parking garages that are only used on game/concert nights.

The downtown uses up 1500 spaces ... maybe they need a few hundred more ... maybe not ... but they don't need 3000. Somebody would go broke building garages under your scenario.

You can walk all you want ... but the downtown area has 1500 spaces. Are you willing to walk to Riverview ? Champlain Place ?

[Deleted]

dugger said:

The City is going to have a series look at a new arena in 2011, but the wild card in all this is the new gaming policy due out sometime this week, the Minister has already suggested 2 or more places could receive a Casino. Now combine that information with the fact that a convention centre is loosing some of it's luster and that leaves the door open for a Casino and new Arena to anchor a regional tourism destination.

The parking situation is semantic, it's a problem they will solve with parking garages and or parking with a bit of a walk, it's an engineering problem and they will solve it.

The city is looking to get and keep people downtown and the Casino and Arena combination has the most economic and entertainment bang for your buck there is.

Aren't casinos' illegal in New Bruswick?