Maybe it’s time for Peterborough city council to declare an arena emergency
In two weeks the Peterborough Memorial Centre will reopen.
The $3.5-million replacement of the floor and boards will make little difference to the comfort and enjoyment level of patrons paying the fare.
For appearance’s sake and amenities the PMC has had essentially no upgrades since the renovation in 2003. As for structure, we still have a 63year-old building that consultants have said is functionally obsolete.
This costly project did bring more safety for players, assurance for those engineers who thought the floor was about to collapse and better sightlines for patrons. The concourses and lobby will still be crowded, the concessions overtaxed and the dressing rooms still too small.
Essentially what Peterborough now has for its premier arena is best compared to a 1956 car. It had new seats added in 2003 and new floorboards and glass in 2019. But functionally it still looks, rides and performs like a 63-year-old car while it tries to keep up with the newer 21st-century models.
By city staff pushing through this project, they have guaranteed the City of Peterborough will continue to have comparatively the most poorly designed and antiquated arena facilities of most mid-sized cities in Ontario, if not Canada.
We are even being surpassed by our neighbours. Millbrook just opened an arena complex that puts anything in this city to shame. Just south of us, Cobourg built a new arena complex that is the envy of user groups in Peterborough. And North Kawartha constructed an arena in Apsley in 2010 that offers more to the community than any of ours.
Most parents of young hockey and lacrosse players who travel around the province say the facilities in Peterborough pale to any community they play in. In fact many are embarrassed to have other teams and their supporters come to Peterborough on return trips.
Last winter the city’s biggest hockey event, the Atom Tournament, was forced to use Northcrest Arena; a rink any other town in Ontario would have demolished years ago. Then our city parking staff decided to ticket parents who were forced to park on the street because the arena has minimal parking. Nice message to send visitors to our city; an obsolete rink and a ticket because there is no parking.
These are just some problems with the way city staff and city council approach the city’s recreational facilities, especially arenas that go back for decades.
The planning of the Memorial Centre took two decades. The city was without an indoor ice rink from 1942 until 1948. Peterborough had no artificial ice rink until 1949 while nearby smaller communities did.
The design of the Evinrude Centre for sightlines, accessibility for patrons and parking is inadequate; just ask Lakers fans. Both Kinsmen and Evinrude complexes were built where expansion is not possible. Whereas other communities find it cheaper to add to existing facilities than build new ones, because of poor planning, Peterborough can’t.
With the trending of this current council, any long-range planning for a new Memorial Centre and the long overdue twin pad is being buried by other headline-grabbing issues. Councillors seem to legislate by the squeaky wheel method.
On the other hand, maybe now that council has declared a climate emergency for the city, it is also time to declare an arena emergency for Peterborough.
The way this city is heading our minor teams will struggle to remain viable with expanding demands, inadequate facilities and little expectation of improvement in the near future.
One wonders in coming years if the PMC’s two major teams, the Lakers and Petes, will also struggle to attract enough patrons in a functionally obsolete facility lacking current amenities to stay sustainable.
Don Barrie is a retired teacher, former Buffalo Sabres scout and a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. His column appears each Saturday in The Examiner.