Taxpayer’s Feel ‘Used’ But Not ‘Enjoyed’ At Lansdowne

Published 10/07/2023 · Updated 10/07/2023

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“Sutcliffe said the success of a project needs to be evaluated by how much it is ‘used and enjoyed’.”
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe on Lansdowne as translated by the CBC

By that measure, Lansdowne has failed. Despite pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this fiscal sinkhole, people have been able to avoid going there in droves … save for a few football games.

Attendance for the 67’s junior hockey team was once 9,000 to 10,000 a game. Last year, it was down to 4,282 a game. That’s what the stewardship of Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group has wrought. The Lansdowne project has repeatedly been able to snatch defeat from the maws of victory.

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The new hockey rink has been designed to fit the current crowds, downsized as they have been. The London Knights draw twice the number of junior fans to their games in a much smaller market. Guelph, Kitchener and Oshawa outdraw the 67’s in much, much, much smaller markets.

What OSEG should do rather than have the city build it a new arena is discover what’s dropping the attendance for junior hockey here. Or maybe OSEG could sell the 67’s to the Senators to help fill that often empty Kanata rink and save taxpayers $250 million for a new arena. And little doubt, the Senators could turn the 67’s into a money-maker through hockey administration synergies. Plus co-purposing the Sens huge advertising and promotion budget. You know, buy a package of tickets for the Sens and get a 67’s package at half price or some such thing.

But perhaps OSEG already knows the 67’s problems. It’s called a lack of parking, traffic congestion and lousy transit.

And on the mayor’s topic of “used and enjoyed,” taxpayers know the “used” part of that equation but maybe not the “enjoyed.”