28 replies to this topic

[AllseeingEye]

Convince the aquilinis to build a 12000 seat arena and move the Comets here...

Don't get me started; if you recall Fraser McColl's original vision for a replacement for Memorial Arena was a 10,000 seat facility right on the waterfront near Capital Iron; instead we wound up with the extremely underwhelming, oh-so-small 7000-seat SoFC, a basic and very pedestrian facility that we are now stuck with for the next 50+ years.

 

Can you imagine what might have been if McColl's proposal had actually reached fruition, in terms of its potential to be a catalyst for further development along that waterfront area?

[Nparker]

I couldn't agree with you more AsE. The short-sightedness of re-locating an undersized (and aesthetically uninspired) multi-use facility at the same location as the old Memorial Arena is one of the greatest tragedies the City of Victoria has allowed to happen in recent history; only to be topped by the mess they have made with the construction of the new Johnson Street Bridge.

 

Does anyone know if the Fraser-McColl designs for a waterfront arena were ever made public? I have had no luck finding anything online.

[Mike K.]

I seem to recall seeing renderings but that was years ago. I'll ask him about them next time I see him.

Rock Bay just needs a vision. Right now land owners ate not guided in any way whatsoever and nobody wants to waste time at city hall coming up with that vision. Helps should focus on this area and given the right plan developers will start buying up the land. Currently we have a bunch of owners unmotivated to do anything.

[Bingo]

Don't get me started; if you recall Fraser McColl's original vision for a replacement for Memorial Arena was a 10,000 seat facility right on the waterfront near Capital Iron; instead we wound up with the extremely underwhelming, oh-so-small 7000-seat SoFC, a basic and very pedestrian facility that we are now stuck with for the next 50+ years.

 

Can you imagine what might have been if McColl's proposal had actually reached fruition, in terms of its potential to be a catalyst for further development along that waterfront area?

 

It's not too late.

Build the 10,000 seat facility on the remediated Rock Bay site, and convert Save on Foods to a drive through grocery store. 

[G-Man]

I am not sure an arena in this area would have been that great. They need a ton of parking and I would rather have buildings than parking.

[Rob Randall]

Yes, I think the Rock Bay arena site would have been more congested. As for people who say it should have been 10,000 seats, the prime tenant is hockey and having two or three thousand empty seats looks better than having seven thousand empty seats. If you build it, they will not come.

 

I know this has been covered here in the past in other Rock Bay threads but the contamination is a huge barrier. The federal government has called areas of Rock Bay one of the most contaminated sites in BC. 

[lanforod]

Which is why the second half of what I wrote is to move the Comets here.  WHL hockey is one level, and you're not going to get a full 10k or 12k in an arena for WHL hockey.

AHL is about two steps higher, and the Comets are the Canucks farm team. I would seriously consider season tickets for the Comets. Would never do that for the Royals.

 

I'd suspect a 10000 seat arena here, with the Comets as the main tenant, would average around 7000 per game - currently they average about 3700 in Utica, and the team is winning like crazy.

[AllseeingEye]

Although I was actually thinking even beyond hockey in terms of usage; although that is certainly the primary use to be sure. I would definitely also support minor pro a la of the AHL variety. That is great hockey.....

 

Other uses however could include various possibilities such as Home, Garden, or Boat shows etc., in addition to the obvious (bigger) ticket concert events. Otherwise with a small limited venue like SoFC - quite aside from the fact you can't expand the facility, does anyone think it will still be suitable when we have 450K in the region? - you wind up with scenario's like $220 tickets for Aerosmith, to cite one drawback.

 

My main point was simply that cities like Red Deer or Kamloops have the same size facilities as we do now with our "new" arena and Saskatoon - half our size - has one significantly larger. I would think for the capital of the third largest province we should easily be able to support anything "Saskatoon"-sized. Certainly Fraser McColl, fifteen + years ago, believed we could and I have to presume a business savvy individual such as he would have done his diligence in advance.

[Mike K.]

^Exactly, we ended up with what can only be described as a small arena.

 

Inevitably someone will build something bigger somewhere else and much like how we lamented the loss of a casino in the city once it was gone we'll lament the loss of concerts and even a hockey team once something bigger and better is built.