Last week, the Journal’s John MacKinnon did a write-up on potential uses for our soon-to-be downtown arena by the city during the 28 days per year City Council was “savy” enough to secure it’s use for, in the arena agreement.
28 days a year, in an arena we own….A couple Edmontonians react to the news.
Ok, I’m done being sarcastic now, at least until the next blog post. So what do you do with the biggest rink in town for 28 days a year?
The article delves into some specific options, however with some time to go obviously before city staffers start booking bands or whatever, I think we’d do well to first decide on some guiding principles for it’s use during these days. Namely, I hope, this one; that for 28 days a year, this facility and the district around it should be open and interactive, with events, activities and what have you that are easily affordable if not completely open to the public. That are setup to keep people around, interested and active all day, rather than sending them off home after a few hours. Surely in a full ‘arena district’ this is do-able, and at a policy level, this is an amenity which could well be tied into the developing WinterCity strategy, with the creation of new winter festivals and events. We’ve got it for four weeks, I’d say that’s a few too few, but the deal’s done, the onus here should be, to make them full, active days, and even throw in the opportunity for the kids, little to middle-aged, to take a skate on NHL ice. The arena can go back to being expensive the other 337 days per year.
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