‘No appetite’ for municipal tax dollars to support new Sens arena: Sutcliffe

A rendering of what a new Ottawa Senators arena on LeBreton Flats could look like. (Capital Sports Development Inc.)

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says he does not believe local taxpayers want city funds to go into a new NHL arena.

The Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission jointly announced on Monday that they had signed an agreement for the sale and purchase of about 11 acres of land in LeBreton Flats, which the Senators plan to use to build a new hockey arena.

Neither the Sens nor the NCC would comment further on the deal, but in previous discussions, Senators President Cyril Leeder said a new arena, if one is built, would take several years to complete.

In the meantime, Sutcliffe says the City of Ottawa has other priorities for its tax dollars.

“I don’t think there’s an appetite for public dollars to go into an NHL hockey arena. There are other priorities that we’re working on right now to invest in public assets, including recreation facilities, including Lansdowne Park, including roads and sidewalks and bike lanes,” Sutcliffe told CTV News Ottawa on Tuesday. “There are many, many other priorities that we’re focused on right now and I don’t think the public wants us to write a cheque to support the construction of an NHL arena.”

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The City is notably in the process of the Lansdowne 2.0 revitalization, a nearly half-billion-dollar project to rebuild stands at the city-owned TD Place Stadium and tear down and construct an entirely new arena for teams such as the Ottawa 67’s and the Ottawa Charge. The City of Ottawa has estimated the price-tag for the new 5,500-seat event centre and a north-side stands at $419 million, but a report from the auditor general warned construction cost estimates could be understated by $73.4 million.

The City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton have put municipal dollars toward NHL arenas in their respective markets.

Sutcliffe says the news about the land purchase agreement is a “big step forward” for the Sens and for the city, and he’s excited to see more details once the team develops its plans more formally.

“Right now, I think the ball is very much in the Senators’ court. They’ve secured a piece of land in the centre of Ottawa. They want to build an arena. So, I think the next step is up to them in terms of how quickly they want to move and what they want to do next,” he said. “It’s so early in the process. We’ve not been asked for anything. The Senators have not made any requests to us. We don’t even know what the plan is going to look like… it’s all very early.”

While city tax dollars might not go into building the arena itself, the city will still be involved in the infrastructure surrounding the site, Sutcliffe said.

“With any development in the city, when there’s something exciting happening, we’re ready to be partners and ready to work with the proponents in order to make sure that it’s moved forward as quickly as possible and the city’s doing everything it can to support it,” he said.

If the Senators do build a new arena, moving the team out of the Canadian Tire Centre would have an economic impact on Kanata, Sutcliffe added.

“The Canadian Tire Centre has been a major economic driver for Kanata and for the entire west end of Ottawa for 30 years now. It’s a major employer, it drives a lot of economic activity in the area for restaurants and other businesses, so we need a plan for that site to make sure that the economy in the west end of the city and in Kanata is sustained and preserved,” he said.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Pringle