Ahead of public tours, transportation plans for area around Rogers Place outlined

New downtown arena parking plan The cost of parking downtown on game nights is about to go up, the city encouraging people to take the LRT.

The City and Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) officials outlined their transportation plan for the area around the new downtown arena.

Officials with the City and OEG outlined how they will approach parking and travel in the arena district – and said changes would be coming to how drivers park in the downtown core.

Starting on September 1, the city said it would be extending EPark hours in downtown zones from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Rogers Place event nights – the parking rate is set for $3.50 per hour.

The affected EPark zones are from 97 Street to 109 Street, and from Jasper Avenue to 107 Avenue.

However, while this decision impacts metered street parking, about 90 percent of the parking spots in the immediate area around the arena are privately owned and operated under ImPark or Diamond Parking.

OEG VP Stu Ballantyne acknowledged there will be challenges.

“We’ve never run an event at Rogers Place, nobody ever has, and no one has ever had a downtown arena in the City of Edmonton,” Ballantyne said. “We’ll continue to monitor and make adjustments as we go; we are encouraging people to plan ahead.”

Both City and Oilers officials said they hope people attending events at Rogers Place choose to take public transit.

The announcements came days before tickets for an open house at Rogers Place become available to the public.

The completed arena will be open to public tours on September 10 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Anyone wishing to attend will have to book a time slot during the open house. More details on the event will be made available when tickets are released online on August 29.

With files from Dan Grummett