If Barrie’s Sadlon Arena expands in size and capacity, there's a corresponding price tag.
Councillors heard a presentation Wednesday night that included six options, ranging in price from $12.3 million to $43.5 million, and increasing the seats from 4,200 now and adding 580 to 1,210 more.
“What’s being proposed here is a property improvement plan,” said Mayor Alex Nuttall. “It’s something that’s giving us lots of options.”
“If you put enough money into it, you can accomplish anything and I think that’s the question that some of us are going to wrestle with,” said Coun. Clare Riepma.
“It’s a large-scale capital investment that is going to pay dividends to the local economy,” said Sierra Planning and Management's Jon Hack, who made the presentation last night and authored the report.
It contains, in the six options, details on additional space for the Bayview Drive facility of 659 to 4,592 square metres, renovation space of 355 to 1,226 sq. m., team facilities, including dressing rooms, of 258 to 998 sq. m., as well as a new lobby and food court of 561 to 1,804 sq. m.
Only one of the six options included multi-purpose space, of 1,753 sq. m., and it was the option with a $43.5-million price tag.
The 'preferred option' has 5,410 seats, an addition of 4,592 sq. m., a renovation area of 1,226 sq. m., team facilities of 944 sq. m., a new lobby and food court of 1,305 sq. m., no multi-purpose facilities, and a $40.8-million bill.
“This probably is the option that makes the most sense,” Hack said. “It has the most benefits, it maximizes seat count and it adds a modernization to the facility overall which is going to, I think, pay dividends.
“If you are asking us what we would recommend, money aside … it’s not cheap, but there are going to be benefits over 10 to 15 years. It is likely to have the greatest operational benefit and represents an acceptable balance in terms of relative capital costs," he added.
Coun. Bryn Hamilton wondered aloud about this council’s capital investment priorities.
“We have the performing arts centre in queue, we have two new community rec centres in queue, so just looking at the funding for this … is the funding expected to come all from city capital, or were there grants that are available for this?” she asked. “Is this completely city-led capital investment that we would be adding in queue in addition to all the rest?”
“That’s one of the many things staff will have to look at in the staff report,” Nuttall said. “I would expect if there is a (staff) recommendation to proceed with a certain option that there would be some sort of funding aligned to it.”
But there’s no staff report on the horizon.
“Typically, staff are provided with the finalized report prior to it going to council. That didn’t happen in this case,” said Michael Prowse, Barrie’s chief administrative officer (CAO). “Staff are still reviewing this report, as council is. Secondly, at this point, staff have no direction to review or report back, so if that’s council’s desire that should be the direction of council.”
There was no such motion from council at Wednesday night’s meeting.
The presentation came from an $85,000 consultant’s report to assess sport-tourism needs and growth opportunities at Sadlon Arena, by Sierra.
Sadlon Arena, formerly known as the Barrie Molson Centre (BMC), is located at the corner of Bayview and Mapleview drives in the city's south end.
“It was commissioned in 1995, so it’s 28 years old. It’s still relatively modern, but it’s not going to target the larger events which will go to facilities that have 5,000 or 6,000 seats,” Hack said of Sadlon Arena. “It suffers from not having the most modern elements, but is still a very good building that does require some further investment.
“I think you do need more seats … it’s the bigger, more modern facilities that get these events,” he said. “Over a 10-year period, you might get three or four national events.”
Hack fielded questions from councillors last night about entrance locations, whether construction could be phased so as not to adversely affect the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts, loading areas, etc.
In August 2021, Barrie councillors looked at resizing Sadlon Arena. They approved a motion that city staff report back to them before completing and submitting a grant application for the Ontario Community Building Fund's Capital Stream to expand the Bayview Drive facility.
At the time, the expansion would have involved a three-storey addition on the north side of the building, including a new grand entrance to the arena with additional multi-purpose/trade show space, ticket booths, concessions, a multi-use sports bar, additional office and retail space, possibly a new home for the Barrie Sports Hall of Fame, additional dressing rooms, player dining and lounge facilities, medical facilities, storage and meeting space, a media lounge and VIP lounge, a new sound system, an upgraded green room along with additional spectator seating too bring its total to about 5,000.
