Removing banners insults Peterborough’s veterans, sports legacy
Tributes to local soldiers and athletes are an essential part of arena
When the Peterborough Lakers finally return to the Peterborough Memorial Centre next spring after a season of banishment, they’re expecting to raise the 2019 Mann Cup banner to the rafters of the arena.
It’s not going to happen if the PMC management has its way.
After this past summer’s renovations, PMC manager Jeremy Giles decided no banners will hang from the rafters of the arena. Last week, new versions of all the Petes’ divisional winning banners, their 1979 Memorial Cup banner, and those honouring past players and coaches were nailed to the east upper wall of the main body of the facility.
PMC plans call for the Century 21 Lakers’ 17 Mann Cup banners and one pro-league banner, the Merit Precision Juniors’ 11 Minto Cup banners and the special ones honouring former players and builders to in some form be nailed to the west wall facing the Lakers’ bench.
This means that from any seat on either side of the playing surface, only the hockey or lacrosse banners will be visible. And the patrons in the north end of the PMC will have a difficult time reading either set of banners. Why the change?
According to sources, Giles decided that the banners hanging over the ice, where they have been for many decades, are impediments to the shows that use the facility. These literally “here-one-day” shows complain that the over-ice banners interfere with their lighting and sound equipment.
Shows have been playing in the PMC for 63 years. Last summer’s multimillion-dollar floor replacement came about only because a monster truck show was concerned about the floor. The main tenants, hockey and lacrosse teams, had no complaints about the floor.
Other OHL and NHL arenas have banners over the ice surface and their rinks also have travelling shows. Why is the PMC so different?
PMC management, the City of Peterborough and its staff seem to have forgotten that the Peterborough Memorial Centre is a memorial. First proposed in the 1930s in memory of veterans of the First World War, it was finally opened in 1956 to honour the veterans of both world wars. Veterans of ensuing conflicts, wars and peacekeeping missions have been recognized in later years.
Since it was built as a sports arena, it logically became a place to honour local and area sporting greats and display their memorabilia. The Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame opened off the lobby in 1995.
The Petes were the first to recognize some of their noted hockey players and coaches with large photo banners hanging from the rafters of the facility’s main body. Lacrosse followed soon after with similar banners for its greats. Also added were championship banners for both sports.
It appears the Petes have bought into the PMC’s edict. As a member of the committee that raised funds to purchase the banners honouring the lacrosse players, sticking them on the side wall out of view of many patrons is nothing more than disrespectful to their memories. The banners were purchased as double-sided for a reason: to be seen throughout the facility.
With practically every open space in the PMC now covered with some kind of advertisement, one has to wonder how long the plaques to Hall of Fame inductees and team photos of past Petes teams will be allowed to stay on the walls.
Obviously the PMC is in business to make money. Ads make money. But how far will council and the citizens of Peterborough allow the city’s largest and most-used memorial to be desecrated by business decisions that are completely at odds with the original intent of the building?
To that end, when booths are set up in the main lobby of the PMC for sporting events and shows, some often block off the large memorial plaque listing the local and area veterans lost in wars. That, too, is a sacred area and should never be hidden from public view. Many of the people attending events have names of relatives on that plaque.
The PMC seems to be working to become more of a travelling show facility, than the city’s premier sports centre. Shows obviously help the PMC’s bottom line, but hockey and lacrosse carry the place and always will. Without the Lakers and Petes, the PMC would become nothing more than an air-conditioned warehouse.
Council must regain control of our Memorial Centre for the taxpayers who care.
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.