News Article: Downtown Arena possible

[mysens]

6 billion sounds crazy, and no article mentions that, where did you get that info from.

Ottawa Business Journal has the article on yesterday's release and I attended as well.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Ottawa Business Journal has the article on yesterday's release and I attended as well.

So was the 6 billion for infrastructure (water, sewer, gas etc) or development, as you mentioned infrastructure the first time. That’s why I said that’s a crazy number.

 

[Relapsing]

Now that we know who's former home our owner bought, I really hope they don't go with Morley Hoppner to design the rink. Otherwise we'll end up with a box of a rink that has other boxes sticking out of it.

 

[mysens]

So was the 6 billion for infrastructure (water, sewer, gas etc) or development, as you mentioned infrastructure the first time. That’s why I said that’s a crazy number.

In the article, they quoted it as infrastructure. But in essence, it is the whole complete development project. They are expecting anywhere between three to $6 billion of development on that land is what they’re trying to say. So it’s quite significant for Ottawa.

 

[StoicSensFan]

Now that we know who's former home our owner bought, I really hope they don't go with Morley Hoppner to design the rink. Otherwise we'll end up with a box of a rink that has other boxes sticking out of it.

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I love that a Porsche and Ranger Rover were included in the design image.

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

In theory yes. but in practice?

Remember Ottawa had a rink in the center of the city. And it was still 75% west/south enders buying season tickets and they could not even average 10K fans, meaning interest outside these areas was minor. Once they moved to a Queensway location attendance skyrocketed. The concept that there is a huge untapped market if they move to a central location is not a given with past history taken into account.

I still do believe it will draw better in a central location, but not noticeably better. Of concern is the likelihood of a steep price increase in tickets and that could severely dampen demand. Someone has to pay for a 1.2B+ rink. Plus a loss of parking revenue to the team.

Ottawa Senators hockey team [1992-2024 NHL] statistics and history at hockeydb.com shows some attendance history.

First 2 full seasons downtown were at max, just over 10k. Third season was just under 10k - and who knows how much the approaching lockout affected fans' enthusiasm about getting out to games.

Then they moved to Kanata and went to 13.5k. I suppose "skyrocket" is accurate, but since about 10k was max downtown, we will never know.

It took until the fourth season to hit 17k and a few more to hit the big numbers. Subsequent years were great, then sad, and then (now) pretty good again.

I imagine that the number 1 predictor of attendance is success or, at least the expectation of success.

I guess the land in Kanata will help pay for part of the new rink. Government at all levels will be involved to some extent. - whether they aware right now or not.

The Team is telling the NCC what they need - more space so they can build "stuff to do" around the rink that will be a draw even when there is not a game night.

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

Antonio Davis, my bad. Davis flew him down to do his place in Chicago to do that place as well. My buddy isn’t loaded but his customers are, the 750K job was a 12 seat room with 2 server racks. I’m not into that stuff but he said it was the equivalent of going to a theatre with better picture and sound. Ridiculous.

FWIW, I've never seen (by 'seen' I mean picture of as I've never been inside one) one of those home theatre setups that looks inviting from a context of having some friends over, or sitting with the family. I get that the visuals and sound are kick ass, but the whole experience looks like "hey, come to my place and we will sit in a darkened room in rows and be quiet as we watch a movie". not for me.

There's certainly an attraction for celebrities who want an a-class experience without having to deal with the everyone starring at you, but there is, I feel,a Bare Naked Ladiesque "We'll take a limousine 'cause it costs more' feel to it when we are talking about regular, but none the less rich, folks.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

FWIW, I've never seen (by 'seen' I mean picture of as I've never been inside one) one of those home theatre setups that looks inviting from a context of having some friends over, or sitting with the family. I get that the visuals and sound are kick ass, but the whole experience looks like "hey, come to my place and we will sit in a darkened room in rows and be quiet as we watch a movie". not for me.

There's certainly an attraction for celebrities who want an a-class experience without having to deal with the everyone starring at you, but there is, I feel,a Bare Naked Ladiesque "We'll take a limousine 'cause it costs more' feel to it when we are talking about regular, but none the less rich, folks.

I usually like the ones more from the moderately wealthy than the uber wealthy. They seem to focus on comfort and experience more than just having the nicest, most expensive finishing's everywhere.

If I were rich, I would have two areas and suspect most do, or even more for other lounging areas. A killer very comfy living room type spot for mostly watching sports, playing vids, and hanging with friends. Then have the theatre for blowing the ears and eyes out for the big movies when you don't really want conversation anyways.

 

[Masked]

First 2 full seasons downtown were at max, just over 10k. Third season was just under 10k - and who knows how much the approaching lockout affected fans' enthusiasm about getting out to games.

Then they moved to Kanata and went to 13.5k. I suppose "skyrocket" is accurate, but since about 10k was max downtown, we will never know.

That season was partly played at the Civic Centre and partly at the Palladium.

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

That season was partly played at the Civic Centre and partly at the Palladium.

right, 95/96 was split. I seem to recall low numbers for civic centre 'cause people were saving their pennies for the Palladium.

 

[Masked]

right, 95/96 was split. I seem to recall low numbers for civic centre 'cause people were saving their pennies for the Palladium.

They were also pissed at the team because the perception was the team was run by amateurs, notably Randy Sexton being in way over his head as GM.

 

[ottawah]

Ottawa Senators hockey team [1992-2024 NHL] statistics and history at hockeydb.com shows some attendance history.

First 2 full seasons downtown were at max, just over 10k. Third season was just under 10k - and who knows how much the approaching lockout affected fans' enthusiasm about getting out to games.

Then they moved to Kanata and went to 13.5k. I suppose "skyrocket" is accurate, but since about 10k was max downtown, we will never know.

It took until the fourth season to hit 17k and a few more to hit the big numbers. Subsequent years were great, then sad, and then (now) pretty good again.

I imagine that the number 1 predictor of attendance is success or, at least the expectation of success.

They went from 100% capacity to 99% to 95%. It was not a good trend.

There really were a few factors mind you. Most people I know who went cited just a pain to get to game. It meant they pretty finicky about the site, which is why choosing the correct site this time around is important.

Secondly, and out of control of the team, was the large scale cutback of government by the government at that time. But that was likely muted as there was still a tonne of hi tech that was flying high.

I agree, at some point there would have been some level of success that would have drawn fans. But a small market cannot sustain that, just ask Winnipeg who are again in trouble.

The important thing to me it shows though is that we are not talking about 19K fans to 16K, a pretty big drop. We are talking a central location small arena. Arguably if you could draw 19K at 100% attendance in the west end, how can you not fill a rink with 10K seats centrally located? complaints at the time was simply "a pain to get to". Given Ottawa is a massive suburban community, especially for corporate support, this has to be taken into account. If you try to build a rink for a different type of city, you are taking on a lot of risk.

 

[Masked]

They went from 100% capacity to 99% to 95%. It was not a good trend.

There really were a few factors mind you. Most people I know who went cited just a pain to get to game. It meant they pretty finicky about the site, which is why choosing the correct site this time around is important.

Secondly, and out of control of the team, was the large scale cutback of government by the government at that time. But that was likely muted as there was still a tonne of hi tech that was flying high.

You're missing the biggest factor - the team was abysmally bad. Four years in a row they were the worst team in the league. After awhile fans get sick of paying to see the team beaten that often. Sure there was the promise of the young players but Daigle and Bonk were disappointments in the early years while Yashin fought with management over money. Also, the fans had no faith in Randy Sexton as GM, for whom the perception was that he was named GM because he was cheap and a friend of the owner.

 

[ottawah]

You're missing the biggest factor - the team was abysmally bad. Four years in a row they were the worst team in the league. After awhile fans get sick of paying to see the team beaten that often. Sure there was the promise of the young players but Daigle and Bonk were disappointments in the early years while Yashin fought with management over money. Also, the fans had no faith in Randy Sexton as GM, for whom the perception was that he was named GM because he was cheap and a friend of the owner.

Should not have mattered in the honey moon period. Plus they were still terrible when they went west yet got a 50% bump in attendance.

 

[Masked]

Should not have mattered in the honey moon period. Plus they were still terrible when they went west yet got a 50% bump in attendance.

People wanted to see the new rink and the team also cleaned house firing Sexton and Allison who were replaced with Gauthier and Martin. The team finally had a real GM running the show.