Blow the whistle. Call a time out. Just stop, before we go any further with the city’s latest grand plans to “repurpose” Northlands Coliseum.
Last spring, Northlands made a proposal to save Edmonton’s venerable arena by converting it into a six-sheet hockey complex, suitable for hosting tournaments and other sports-related events, complete with fitness centre and running track. Northlands estimated the cost of the retrofit would be $85 million.
A few months later, city hall issued an analysis criticizing the plan in scathing terms. Retrofitting, it said, would cost at least $102 million. The city was also skeptical — to put it politely — that there was enough tournament demand for such a facility. Yes, the city was planning to close aging rinks in south-central and west-central Edmonton, said the report. But the report was doubtful that building a skating six-plex at Northlands was really the best way to replace rinks in Old Strathcona, Queen Alexandra and Crestwood.
Yet having apparently forgotten all its previous objections to the plan, the city is now proposing to double-down — with a triple-axel twist.
The city has determined it would be too expensive to retrofit the Coliseum. Chris Hodgson, director of the city’s Northlands’ Transition Initiative, says the newest estimates suggest converting the old arena could cost 50 per cent more than originally estimated. The city won’t provide a precise number, but my math puts that at approximately $151 million.
So instead of saving the fabled but tired arena, and giving Northlands’ a new purpose — which was, after all, the ostensible purpose of this whole exercise — the city is considering demolishing the Coliseum. The city would take the land around the arena back from Northlands, its tenant. Then it would build a new multimillion-dollar hockey complex with four rinks, a running track, classrooms and offices for a national hockey academy and “centre of excellence” on the site.
This sprawling new complex would eat up so much of the surface parking that surrounds Coliseum, the city would likely need to build a big parkade next door.
What would all this cost? The report, which is to be debated by city council Tuesday, doesn’t include any numbers at all. Nor does it include any revenue projections. Or any projections for utilization.
Hodgson says the discussion is still “pretty high level” and that those details will come later.
Instead, the report proposes that council sign a draft memorandum of understanding with Hockey Canada to start planning this facility, even though Hockey Canada isn’t kicking in a penny, for either capital or operating costs. To add to the air of fantasy? The report suggests partnering with local groups, including the Oilers Entertainment Group, to assist with operating and capital expenses.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Edmonton should have a hockey academy/sports centre of excellence. Both our local school boards, Catholic and public, already run popular hockey academies. But there’s no mention of that in the city report, and no suggestion of partnering with them, either. Would this new facility run in competition to those programs? The report is silent on that. Would this be a boarding school for elite players? If so, there’s no discussion of where they’d live, or if this would be a suitable area for them.
With new multi-rink facilities being planned for the U of A South Campus and Lewis Estates, how many more rinks do we need — and how many do we want to pay for?
And if we do need a hockey multiplex, why build it on the Coliseum site, if we’re just going to demolish the arena anyway? Especially if we’d need to build a parkade, too? If we’re not saving the building, and we’re not helping Northlands, what’s the magic of building on that site?
“It could help keep the area an active hub,” says Hodgson. “It would be a big step towards keeping the site vibrant and active.”
We do need a plan for the whole Northlands site, one that complements and strengthens the surrounding neighbourhood. But there isn’t a lot of evidence to suggest this plan would do that. Meanwhile, Northlands, which declined to comment for this story, continues to book bands and circuses and rodeos and other events too small or too low-budget for Rogers Place.
So before the city signs that draft memorandum of understanding with Hockey Canada, let’s all understand what we’re about to do, and what all the costs, economic and otherwise, might be.