K-ROCK CENTRE (REGIONAL SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE) ARCHIVE
Questions And Answers
What is the Kingston Regional Sports & Entertainment Centre?
What economic rewards does a Sports & Entertainment Centre present to the Kingston community?
Why is it important to build the Sports & Entertainment Centre downtown?
How Many Seats will the Sports & Entertainment Centre have?
What exciting events will be held at the Sports & Entertainment Centre?
How much will it cost to build the Sports & Entertainment Centre and where will the money come from?
Will the sports and entertainment centre mean higher taxes?
Who will be operating and marketing the Sports & Entertainment Centre?
How will the city handle the additional parking and traffic?
What are the benefits of dispersed parking?
What is the Kingston Regional Sports & Entertainment Centre?
A: The Kingston Regional Sports & Entertainment Centre will provide a state-of-the-art venue for sporting events, concerts and other entertainment events. The sports and entertainment centre includes all the amenities required to meet the current and future needs for hosting a variety of events like concerts, family shows, theatre performances, trade shows, community events and Kingston Frontenacs games. It is located downtown within a central business district block bound by Ontario Street, Barrack Street, Kingston Street and Place D'Armes.
What economic rewards does a Sports & Entertainment Centre present to the Kingston community?
A: The economic benefits a Sports & Entertainment Centre will bring to Kingston are estimated to be in the range of $20 million each year. The financial details to support this figure are outlined in the city's original Sports & Entertainment Centre Business Plan and later confirmed by the Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO) after hiring Henson Consulting to peer review the estimates. Such estimates reinforce the importance of the Sports & Entertainment Centre as a community investment.
Also, the KEDCO review concluded that, "Investment in the Sports & Entertainment Centre in conjunction with the other capital investments that the city is undertaking presents an opportunity to not only depict Kingston as a vibrant and energetic community, but to begin the process of positioning Kingston as an important centre - as the hub of Eastern Ontario - much in the same way that London is now seen as the hub of Southwestern Ontario." A copy of the Economic Impact Analysis Report is posted to the KEDCO web site at www.kingstoncanada.com.
The Kingston Frontenacs recently announced that they will be submitting a bid for the 2008 Memorial Cup. The Memorial Cup brought an economic boost of $15 million to London, in just one week.
Why is it important to build the Sports & Entertainment Centre downtown?
A: A downtown site makes the most economic sense and delivers the greatest benefits to the entire Kingston community.
Downtown amenities like restaurants, hotels, and public transportation are all accessible and within easy walking distance. The downtown location will draw people and events to the city. That's good for the local economy and good for the city's image. The Sports & Entertainment Centre will enable the city to attract and keep business downtown.
Also, a sports and entertainment centre is regarded as an "added attractor" in helping increase tourism. This is particularly true in cases where a significant component of the tourism industry involves visitors who are friends or family of local residents.
How many seats will the Sports & Entertainment Centre have?
A: The Sports & Entertainment Centre will have 5,000 seats in the arena bowl and 6,800 seats will be available for events such as concerts.
|
SEAT CONFIGURATION FOR ARENA EVENTS |
|
|---|---|
|
Regular Seats |
4,070 |
|
Club Seats |
400 |
|
Standing Room |
200 |
|
Private Suites 1 |
280 |
|
Party Suites 2 |
50 |
|
Total Seats |
5,000 |
Notes:
- 28 private suites with 10 seats each
- 2 Party Suites with 25 seats each
What exciting events will be held at the Sports & Entertainment Centre?
A: The Sports & Entertainment Centre will host a wide array of events in a spectacular setting.
In addition to providing a new and larger venue for Kingston Frontenac hockey games, the Sports & Entertainment Centre will attract a greater number and higher caliber of entertainment, cultural events and shows.
The following list provides an example of the shows and events the Sports & Entertainment Centre will host:
- Ontario Hockey League Games
- Other Ice Sports
- Ice Shows
- Children's Concerts
- Music Concerts
- Performing Arts - Dance, Live Theatre
- Visual Arts
- Agricultural, Sporting and Trade Shows
- Dog Shows, Flower and Garden Shows
- Meetings And Convention/Conference Plenary Sessions
- Convocation/Graduation Ceremonies
- Sporting Events - Local, Provincial, National
- Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame
How much will it cost to build the Sports & Entertainment Centre and where will the money come from?
A: The estimated cost to build the Sports & Entertainment Centre is $46.1-million. The current financing plan is as follows:
- $24.8 million debt, to be repaid from parking revenues and user fees.
- $4 million in Provincial Government Grants.
- $3 million from the Downtown Kingston BIA.
- $3 million from the Kingston Accommodation Partners Inc.
- $3 million in development charges.
- $6.3 million from Reserve Funds (municipal savings account).
- $2 million from private donations.
The Federal government has indicated that it is considering a request to assist in the funding of the Centre.
Will the sports and entertainment centre mean higher taxes?
A: Kingston taxpayers will not be asked to pay more for the new Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre.
The construction of the downtown sports and entertainment centre will be paid for with grants, operating and parking revenues, approved municipal reserve funds and pledges from the Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), the Kingston Accommodation Partners (KAP) and from community fundraising without a municipal tax increase.
A: Council policy states that "all large municipal building and retrofit projects undertake an assessment of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as a design goal for Council's consideration before finalization of the project design."
Recent experience has demonstrated that for certain buildings, the costs to meet LEED certification will achieve a payback in energy savings and efficiencies sufficient to offset the incremental capital costs over a reasonable period of time.
Who will be operating and marketing the Sports & Entertainment Centre?
A: The facility operator will be Arcturus/SMG Canada, a management consortium committed to allowing the community to participate in event and entertainment planning through a Community Advisory Group. SMG is the largest manager of sports and entertainment venues in North America. As the operator of the Sports and Entertainment Centre, Arcturus/SMG will look after booking events, day-to-day maintenance, promotion and marketing, including selling suites and naming rights.
How will the city handle the additional parking and traffic?
A: This reflects the current travel characteristics and if applied to the Sports & Entertainment Centre could result in less than 300 vehicles headed to the causeway from the Sports & Entertainment Centre. Given that the time of peak Sports & Entertainment Centre operations does not coincide with the commuter peak hour, the traffic demand on the La Salle Causeway is anticipated to be lighter than the time when the entire downtown heads home.
There are numerous parking options within a ten minute walk in many directions of the proposed Sports & Entertainment Centre facility. After a Sports & Entertainment Centre event, it is expected that motorists will arrive at their vehicles at different times and leave the area using different routes. This dispersed pattern of parking will result in less traffic congestion.
What are the Benefits of Dispersed Parking?
A: The "Economic Impact of the Proposed Oshawa Sports and Entertainment Facility" prepared in February 2005 by Henson Consulting Ltd. states that "…one of the greatest negative impacts of sports facilities, is the sea of parking that is often associated with them.
Critics of stadiums built within urban areas have found that the economic impacts of the stadium have been negligible when they were separated from the downtown area by vast parking areas." This fact holds true whether a large parking lot is in an urban or a suburban setting.
The Hemson Report also talks about the importance of parking decisions to potential economic spin-offs. "To some, the lack of parking at a facility is perceived as a negative. However, experience elsewhere suggests the opposite, since the provision of parking around a facility tends to isolate it from its neighbourhood and decreases the likelihood that attendees will remain in the area after the event. Parking offsite forces patrons to walk through a downtown area and this creates potential customers for local businesses."
Dispersed parking reduces the cost of the Sports & Entertainment Centre. From a capital cost perspective, constructing the Sports & Entertainment Centre in the suburbs and/or along the 401 would have the added cost of constructing a large parking lot. Further, a site outside the urban area which is not currently serviced with municipal infrastructure such as water, sewer, streets and sidewalks would add a significant amount to the overall construction costs.
While the Memorial Centre is not in close enough proximity to the downtown to generate substantial economic spin-off advantages, it has for 54 years been an excellent example of how well dispersed parking can work. Over the years there have been relatively few documented traffic and parking complaints in the vicinity of the Memorial Centre despite the fact that there are no large parking lots nearby and as a result, most cars are parked on residential streets. Unlike the Memorial Centre, the North block site provides access to approximately 5,330 city owned and private parking spaces, within a 10 minute walk.
A: Additional parking structures will not be required to accommodate the Sports & Entertainment Centre. The City of Kingston has long been aware of the desire to expand public parking facilities even further in the downtown core and has initiated planning efforts to consider options. However, these initiatives are independent of the Sports & Entertainment Centre requirements.
A: The Transportation Impact Study will develop a transit operational strategy that identifies transit measures required to support the Sports & Entertainment Centre. Consultants will develop this strategy in conjunction with Kingston Transit and city of Kingston Parking services to assure its viability. The strategy is intended to identify the enhancements necessary to promote ridership to the event by incorporating transit priority features.
