NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman toured Ottawa on Tuesday to promote the work being done on a downtown arena.
The development plan has been off-and-on for years, with the latest step an “agreement in principle” in September between the Ottawa Senators and National Capital Commission that would see the Sens-led Capital Sports Development Inc. purchase a plot of land at LeBreton Flats.
it would facilitate a move from the team’s Kanata home about 23 kilometres from Parliament Hill to one about two kilometres away.
The specifics around parking haven’t been announced, but the site is a few hundred metres from the meeting of the Trillium and Confederation rail lines at Bayview station. It’s also closer to the bridges between Ottawa and Gatineau.
Bettman said he’s optimistic of the economic boom the new arena could bring because the stadium would be more central and could possibly bring in more events.
WATCH | The tentative deal for a new arena at LeBreton Flats:
The Ottawa Senators are one step closer to moving their home ice downtown. The team and the National Capital Commission announced a land sale agreement on Sept. 20 for the site at LeBreton Flats, but it could still be years before constuction of an arena gets underway.
“So instead of having 75 events [a year], if there are 150, that breeds a whole economy [including] shopping, restaurants [and] bars around the arena or in walking distance of the arena,” Bettman said.
“I mean, just take a look at what the economies of Taylor Swift concerts do to the places they go.”
One tourism agency’s estimate is Swift’s Eras Tour is leading to as much as $282 million in economic activity in Toronto, though it’s worth noting the stadium tour isn’t going anywhere with a capacity under 40,000 people.
There’s also the counter-argument that people move disposable income around when new attractions come rather than decide to start spending more money, and the example close to home of a new sports-and-business development underperforming.
Amidst Bettman’s optimism, he warns this deal won’t happen overnight.
“There are a lot of things that have to come together that make this work and nobody, again, should jump ahead and presume that it requires any one additional thing,” he emphasized.
Bettman said that includes the design, where exactly on the property the arena will be located and the big question of who is going to pay for this estimated $1-billion project.
“People are going to speculate … What does it mean to taxpayers? Don’t go there yet. There are too many things that have to come together before anybody should draw any conclusions whatsoever,” he said.
Bettman outlined the importance of a public and private partnerships and attended an Ottawa Board of Trade meeting to discuss the project with hundreds of members of the city’s business community.
Along his tour of Ottawa, Bettman and other NHL officials walked LeBreton Flats, visited Mayor Mark Sutcliffe at city hall and was at the Canadian Tire Centre for Ottawa’s 5-2 loss to Edmonton.
In a statement to CBC, Sutcliffe said he and the officials had “a good discussion” about the Senators and the future of hockey in Ottawa and received an update on the agreement with the NCC.