City missed opportunities for replacing Memorial Centre
Other places in Ontario including Kingston and Oshawa have found ways to build new arena and event facilities
When it comes to Peterborough improving its embarrassing arena inadequacies, city council missed a prime opportunity two years ago when it approved the questionable replacement of the Memorial Centre floor and boards.
When council ignored appeals by lacrosse groups and a qualified engineer to do a smaller, less expensive repair, instead of a full floor rebuild, they stifled the potential of any replacement of the obsolete PMC for many years.
The $3.5-million cost was nothing more than cosmetic changes. The ice is no better, the playing surface is identical to before, the Plexiglas around the ice surface maybe has a few less scratches and the doors and gates of the boards may swing a little easier.
But the dressing rooms are still inadequate, access to the floor for concert equipment is still limited, office and storage
space is still inadequate and the concourses and lobbies are still cramped.
If council had ignored staff ’s problematic recommendation to replace the floor and listened to engineers hired by user groups that suggested a less disruptive and cheaper fix, the possibly of a major entertainment centre replacement in a reasonable time frame would still be viable.
Unfortunately, after the new floor and boards were finished, council back-burnered earlier discussions of plans for a PMC replacement. Now, with COVID-19 and the city’s neglected infrastructure and delayed pro
jects, any chance of the city building a replacement for the PMC is as remote as hitting all green lights driving down George Street.
The Peterborough Petes recently restated their appeal for a replacement facility. They are playing in one of the oldest, least efficient arenas in the Ontario Hockey League.
One wonders if the Petes had supported the alternative proposal presented by the Lakers to city council in the fall of 2018, the cheaper solution, would the two main user groups have garnered council’s support?
Undoubtedly, COVID -19 or not, council would be more in
clined to reinstitute planning for a new entertainment centre if the expensive Band-Aid of a new floor and boards had not happened.
When the mayor recently announced there is now little urgency for a new entertainment centre, there is no way this council and likely succeeding ones are going to commit to making long-range plans for a facility that will more than likely cost close to $100 million in today’s dollars. Especially with the new floor and boards, the PMC’s shelf life, at least in the eyes of city staff and council, has been extended at least a couple of decades.
When the concept of a Memorial Centre was first discussed in the 1930s as a memorial to veterans of the First World War, it took over 20 years before the various city councils found a way to build the $850,000 facility. The building has served the city well. The renovation in 2003 was intended to buy the PMC another 20 years of use. It now appears council will push that estimate much further down the road.
In the past 15 years, two of our neighbouring cities, both with OHL franchises, Kingston and Oshawa, found ways to build new entertainment facilities.
Besides their OHL teams having 21st-century facilities and amenities to entertain their fans, how many of the shows they attract are choosing to forgo the cramped PMC?
Planning must start now for a new facility because of the city’s track record of delay, procrastination and dawdling when it comes to major projects.
Also, any planning sessions must include input from users, business owners and qualified citizen groups, not just pricey consultants and city staff.