Thinking big on arenas complex

Consultant holds forum on arenas study

Come up with what should be in an ideal arena facility; then the plan can be scaled back to fit the city’s budget, a consultant told representative of arena user groups such as figure skating associations, hockey leagues and sledge hockey clubs on Wednesday night.

The roughly 50 people who took part in the community forum at the Peterborough Public Library for the city’s arena needs assessment that’s underway didn’t hold back with their suggestions.

They came up with ideas such as building a facility with four or six pads and including other space in a multi-use complex for indoor golf, a pool, a gymnasium, a rock-climbing wall, a day care, an indoor running track, restaurants and a connected library.

And there were suggestions for more basic items, such as storage space for user groups, more spectator seating, better viewing areas, larger change rooms and water-bottle-filling stations.

Building a facility that allows natural light into the arena was a popular idea offered by several of the groups.

A city-hired consultant is collecting comments from residents and user groups for the study that’s being driven by the municipality’s need for options to replace the aging Northcrest Arena.

Representatives from the Kawartha Blazers sledge hockey club pushed for improved accessibility features in the existing arenas and any new facility.

“Our dream is to host a tournament at some point,” Jeremiah Wade said.

State-of-the-art facilities in other communities, such Whitby’s Iroquois Park Sports Centre, have features such as bench areas that allow the benches to be flipped up or removed so sledge hockey players can use that space, Wade said.

Iroquois Park Sports Centre is a massive complex and park that includes six arenas, a swimming pool, four baseball diamonds, a soccer field with lighting, a strength-and-conditioning training centre, a 400-seat licensed restaurant and a full-service pro shop. It’s a municipally owned complex.

More municipalities are building sport complexes rather than spreading their facilities out across their communities, said Robert Lockhart, the consultant leading the review process for the city.

“We want you to do a bit of dreaming with us here,” he told the workshop participants. “Hopefully it will be the best facility that the community has ever seen.”

The Kawartha Blazers had another request that was consistent across all the groups represented at the meeting — more ice time during the peakdemand periods of weekends and early evenings.

“We need more ice,” said Glen White, another representative from the sledge hockey club.

With the city’s six ice pads almost fully booked during peak periods, the municipality is likely looking to add more ice surfaces when it replaces Northcrest Arena. The other facilities are the single pad at the Memorial Centre, the twin-pad at Kinsmen Civic Centre and the two rinks at the Evinrude Centre.

Northcrest is going to be retired, Lockhart said.

“It won’t be closed until a new facility is built … but the urgency is certainly there,” he said.

Another community forum will be held in the fall.

NOTES: Coun. Lesley Parnell and Cavan Monaghan Deputy Mayor Scott McFadden participated in the group discussions…. Coun. Bill Juby briefly stopped by the workshop to observe…. Arenas, parks and recreation committee members Gary Rabjohn, Gary Baldwin and Dave Haacke attended the meeting.