A New Spectator Facility for St. Catharines?

I received an e-mail from the St. Catharines Standard today that read as follows:

Good morning, candidates!
The Standard is preparing a "Hot Topics" election story for publication Thursday on the issue of a new spectator facility for St. Catharines.
If you have an opinion on whether this facility should be built, where it should be built and how it should be paid for, please send reporter Marlene Bergsma a short email before 2 p.m. today clearly outlining your views. Please also include a phone number where you can be reached this afternoon. As many candidate comments as possible will be included in the story and in The Standard's online election coverage.
Thank you for your participation.
Marlene Bergsma
I'm not sure which, if any, of my comments may be used in the article, but here is my full response to the e-mail:

Hi, Marlene

 

It's clear to me that - first and foremost - we need more information on this before we can definitively say whether or not a new facility can/should be built.

 

Some of that information would include how much revenue could be generated by the facility (and how much of it would go back into City coffers, thereby not further burdening taxpayers), as well as what partnerships might be available for sharing in the costs of a new facility. When I mention revenue generation, I'm also talking about non-game nights and the off-season, as this may be where the largest opportunity is.

 

With a current seating capacity of just over 3,000 at Jack Gatecliff and a proposed capacity of 5,500 for a new facility, are we doing the right thing? If we are to go ahead with it, will it be large enough to attract revenue-generating performances on non-game nights and in the off-season? Copps does that with 18,000 seats... St. Catharines taxpayers can't afford that.

 

Can performances that will generate significant revenue for St. Catharines be attracted to a 5,500-seat facility? We need to answer this question and make sure we are able to put the appropriate resources in place before we can say 'yes' or 'no' to a new facility.

 

Would it be nice to have a new facility for our Ice Dogs to play in (and for us to watch them in)? Yes, of course it would. However, the tax burden of St. Catharines residents is already so high that I would not be able to justify further adding to their tax burden for a new spectator facility that may not be able to cover its own operating costs, never mind generate revenue for the good of the City.

 

With St. Catharines' most recent arena having not been properly planned - on a number of levels - the 2010-2014 Council will need to ensure that they are taking all of the rights steps in researching and implementing practices to make any new capital investment worthwhile.

 

Laura Ip

St. George's ward candidate

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Let me be clear here, I am not saying that we should build a facility and that it should be larger. I am saying that we need to investigate all of our options and, if we are to go ahead with this, we need to know if we generate reveue on non-game nights and in the off-season. If we can't do that, would the facility need to be much larger to do so, or only a little larger? And, do/can we have all of the other resources in place to make this happen?

We need to start being a lot more creative about how we're spending money in St. Catharines. There are avenues that will reduce the burden on the taxpayers, and we need to be exploring those avenues.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at: lauraipforstgeorgesward@gmail.com. You can also visit my website: http://www.lauraip.net/ or follow me on Twitter: LauraIp4Council.