Lacrosse paying the price for arena issue it didn’t cause: Tim Barrie
The lacrosse community is not going to easily get over city council’s decision to close the Memorial Centre next summer.
Tim Barrie, the spokesman for lacrosse during city council deliberations, says the process was stacked against the Peterborough Lakers.
When an engineer raised concerns about the integrity of the PMC floor Barrie believes Mac MacGillivray, the city’s manager of facilities and energy, steered the process in a direction that didn’t fully factor the impact closing the PMC would have on tenants or arena business.
He pursued no alternative solutions and it took lobbying from the Lakers for council to seek a second opinion. An opinion, Barrie says, that wasn’t given fair consideration.
“If this was your business there is no way you’d let your business shut down for five months. You would uncover every stone you could to find a way to keep it going especially when you know it’s a money pit and it’s going to be replaced,” Barrie said.
The Lakers will be forced to use a smaller arena, like the Evinrude Centre, that holds a fraction of their average 3,000 attendance.
“We as a lacrosse community really don’t think city staff or council understands how devastating this is to the Lakers franchise. They think it’s switch you turn off and turn on next year. It’s not going to be easy,” he said.
Barrie called the city council process frustrating. He had a short window to address council and when any subsequent speakers countered his comments there was no avenue for rebuttal. He had no opportunity to respond to statements Petes president Dave Pogue made about the ice mat back-up Barrie proposed if pipes in the arena floor were compromised.
Barrie said the Entuitive engineer who proposed the fix spoke before the CSE and TSE engineers who sealed the argument for replacing the floor. Barrie said neither he or Entuitive had any ability to challenge their statements.
“Basically, whoever goes last wins,” Barrie said.
The city also moved the goal posts, he said.
“For two years it had always been a structural issue. They were adamant it could not be fixed,” Barrie said.
The Lakers found a fix for $250,000, well below the $3.5 million of a floor replacement, and then the issue became the piping, he said. City council, he said, had already approved a back-up plan.
Pogue told council on Monday he spoke to several experts, including NHL ice specialist Dan Craig, who advised against using the mat system. That didn’t sit well with the Lakers since the Petes supported the back-up plan earlier. Barrie said lacrosse is paying a price for an arena issue they didn’t cause and doesn’t affect their playing surface. He wants to know if the Petes would have fought a fix if it was their season at stake.
“I wonder what the Petes’ religion would be around fixing the floor and having an ice mat as a back-up? I wonder if it would change,” Barrie said.
“I think that’s what everyone is trying to avoid so that we’re not having a reactionary position to fixing this floor,” Pogue said. “That’s the whole idea of being proactive. I think I’d approach it the same way if that was facing us. I’d go to the best possible experts I could find including Dan Craig, who I did go to and , wasn’t the only expert I went to, to see what the best option was.”
The Lakers took offence to the Petes offering marketing advice at council.
“It was a little rich of them to stand up there and tell us it was in our own benefit to move our product to places like Bobcaygeon and expand our customer base,” Barrie said.
Pogue said the intent was to offer the Lakers the help of their marketing staff next season if it would help.
“Admittedly, it didn’t necessarily come across that way and I’ll take the blame for that and apologize for that if it didn’t come across properly,” Pogue said.
The outcome has left the Lakers with raw feelings toward the Petes.
“They keep saying they are losing, too, but they’re delaying the start of their home season by (five) weeks,” Barrie said. “That is not a hardship. A hardship is when you lose your whole season.”
“I don’t want to compare hardships,” Pogue said. “Both of us are going to experience hardships from this floor tear-up and fix. There is no question.”
Pogue said he’s upset this appears to have affected the Petes and Lakers relationship.
“I met with Tim on the Thursday before council to make sure he understood what my position was going to be so I didn’t blindside him in any way,” Pogue said.
“I felt bad then. I felt bad when it was happening. I think it’s unfair that two good tenants in a building that a landlord is forced to make repairs to are pitted against each other. In time, maybe there is a way we can solve that. We’re there if we can help them.”
Pogue also believes council would have reached the same conclusion regardless of his presentation.
“I say that because I don’t think the Entuitive fellow helped the Lakers as they had expected during his Q and A. I was also taken aback by how strong the other engineers were about what needed to happen.”