Here’s hoping that the new council of Chatham-Kent will get off its duff and get moving on a twin-pad arena in Chatham.
Yes, these are lean times financially and this may not be the best of the time to lay out a lot of money, but is there an ideal time to do such a thing.
Chatham Memorial Arena has served this community well since before the Second World War. But it’s time for something new.
Building a twin pad facility would help accommodate the groups that crave prime time ice and may encourage the scheduling of more hockey tournaments and skating events, all of which could bring dollars into the community.
Communities including Leamington, St. Marys, St. Thomas and LaSalle all have new and beautiful arenas and Chatham has, well, Memorial Arena, a building which has served as the main arena in the community admirably. It is archaic compared to many others.
Growing up in Chatham, I remember the days when Memorial Arena was the only one in Chatham. The Chatham Maroons, both senior and junior, played there. Minor hockey, men’s leagues and figure skating all shared the one ice pad.
In 1972, the North Side Arena, now named for the late mayor Bill Erickson, was constructed and a second ice pad was provided for Chatham.
I was working out of town when I heard that an arena was being built at Thames Campus and I was overjoyed for my community. I assumed that this would be the number one area in town with a couple of pads. It seemed the perfect spot for residents of Chatham, Dover, Raleigh and elsewhere in the former county of Kent.
I believed that this would lead to the decommissioning of Memorial Arena but I was wrong. Only one ice pad was built, and Memorial was still the main arena and home of the Maroons.
Today, the Tweedsmuir Avenue facility is still home of the Greater Ontario Hockey League Junior Maroons as well as many other groups.
Ice time is at a premium in the best hours and some minor hockey teams have been forced to use the Bothwell arena for practice time.
It’s time that the municipality of Chatham-Kent made a decision to build a new facility. And when that time comes, I hope it’s more accessible than the current building.
I use the elevator at the arena when I attend Chatham Maroons hockey games. I have bad knees and have difficully climbing the stairs. There are people in wheelchairs and motorized scooters for whom the elevator is a godsend. At Maroons games the device is easily accessible because a member of the security team has a key.
There are people such as myself who like to walk the top of the arena as part of a local walking club. Getting up and down those stairs can be a real chore somedays.
It’s an inconvenience for me to climb the stairs but I don’t know how someone in a wheelchair would get up there to watch minor hockey or other events. One would have to locate the arena attendant to use the elevator and that person is usually busy with other duties.
In Leamington, people can operate the device themselves making it easier to get around.
It’s time to get going on a twin pad, (or more) arena in this community and put Memorial to rest.
As the movie Field of Dreams suggests in another context, Build it and they will come.
Rob
Brian Cleeve
Aaron Hall
Michael Cowtan
Jay Smith
CKDP Staff
Greg Hetherington
Marlee Robinson
Chris Prince
Ice time in prime-time seems to be an issue no matter how many ice surfaces are available. Arenas are a cost to taxpayers and do not generate income. Why is it that the idea of privately owned arenas has not been visited in C-K? Why not lease existing arenas to private firms who may be more creative and business like? If there is demand a private business should/will step up to the plate; if this is not the case then why are we considering increasing the amount of ice time available?
At the time, the Maroons were given as a reason not to welcome an OHL plan led by the Hunters (who have had some success in London). This team has been sold more then once since then. Is it time that the Maroons invest in their own facility?
Way to go Brian, We the Kinsmen Club of Chatham have been saying this for 3 years now and all we have to show for it so far with the past council is a feasibility study and thousands of names on petitions stating that Chatham needs a twin pad facility. Ours was to go a few steps further in that we would incorporate a convention trade centre, soccer fields and baseball diamonds if needed and possibly a larger seating capacity arena as one of the twins for large venues. It was a complete package also incorporating eco technology which I see is beeing done in areas of Essex county and London. Our idea for this was probably one of the first out of the gate but apparently will be the last to accomplish. How come wherever you go and size of community they have new facilities and we are stuck behind. There must be some funding out there if all others areas can access it why can’t we. Why should we have to pay for a new Convention Trade centre with tax dollars. We care about our community and want to see it better itself.
Kinsmen Club of Chatham
Imagine the OHL team we could have had in C-K had we been proactive with the Hunter Brothers from Petrolia. They’d even talked about building an arena to accomodate said team. Applaud what they’ve done in London. That could’ve been world class hockey played here in the Muncipality of Chatham-Kent. It was not to be due to some jerk who said: “not over my dead body” and its local investment – the equivalent of a used Winnebago. Hubris at its worst. One of these days, Chatham-Kent will be more than a B-team. Hopefully, in my lifetime. we could even name them the “Chatham Junior ‘A’ Maroons”
Unfortunately I strongly believe CK can’t support an OHL team. We would consistently need 3-5 thousand fans for 30 games at $15 or more per ticket to even come close to the support needed, along with numerous large corporate sponsors. I think the Maroons need to be a hot item in town again before the OHL will even sniff out our area.
I like the idea of a twin pad in a rural center like Wallaceburg. They are in need of a new arena, plus the precedent has been set by a community like Essex that built a beautiful twin-pad rink next door to their old existing arena. The facility is now used as the home ice for the Sun County Panthers AAA program and brings a lot of fans and visitors to the community, something Wallaceburg could also use. I think the ice time allocations within Chatham proper are currently sufficient, and a large complex could be overkill.
IK, I couldn’t agree more. Wallaceburg fills the seats at every game and always has great support from the Community, and each year is in contention! What have the Maroons done of late? I think they draw less fans than most of the Jr “C” teams. I think C-K needs to look through-out the communities and see where the need is in C-K, but that doesn’t mean it ends up in Chatham if the need is there, maybe its Blenheim or Thamesville? Sorry Dresden you already have a great arena!
Not to worry IK, it’s not unfortunate that you don’t believe C-K can support an OHL team. It’s just one person’s opinion, and it’s OK to have one. I have no clue as to whether that’s likely to be true or not, as I certainly haven’t done an in-depth market study and am far from an expert on the subject. So who knows? You might be right. Or maybe not?
A twin pad is a good idea, but not a great one. Sure it would be nice to have new facilities, for the fans and spectators, nice new dressing rooms. As a travel team parent, I am constantly in awe of smaller surrounding communities with ‘fancy’ new multi-pad arenas. Oopps, sports complexes, not arenas. They have more in mind than hockey. Chatham-Kent has a theatre and is building a con-ex centre or whatever.
When you’re on the ice, none of this matters, least of all to the kids. So why build only two pads? What will we gain? Memorial will be closed, and Erickson re-fitted for indoor sports, no longer used for ice hockey. If ice time is at a premium and Chatham teams are going else where to practice, what will two pads do for them? I am sure it will be a long time before a new arena will ever be discussed again, so why not do it right the first time and go with three or four pads. We all know two is not really enough, and everyone keeps up with ‘build it and they will come’, so lets build it. Aim for four and we can settle for three if need be. Two? That’s just silly talk.
As a non-hockey loving canadian I think it would be short sighted to invest in twin pad arenas. When looking at the best bang for a communities buck (good cost plus number of people using the facility) arena only designs, in my opinion, only cater to specific groups of people. I’m all for competitive sport but in an aging community is putting millions of dollars behind something only a handful of specialty teams will use the best use of money? Take a look at the waterloo recreation complex http://www.thecomplex.ca where they boast: “The Complex is a multi-purpose facility with Olympic-size ice surface, indoor track, pool, meeting rooms, and banquet hall, all under one roof”
I think a broader approach catering to a wider segment of our population will be better use of tax dollars and be better welcomed by all.
Personnally, I have had enough with the multi-million dollar spending constantly being bandies about by council, seemingly like monopoly money.
Build it, and they will come? Bull!
How about we concentrate our effort on bringing more jobs to the area and expanding our tax base before we talk more spending.
Why not build a twin pad sports complex in a rural community close to Chatham? Give Chatham-Kent some of the advantages of a sports complex. Wallaceburg, Blenheim, Bothwell have few opportuities for fitness, and the entire community of Chatham-Kent would be welcome to use the facility. Chatham has the YMCA and numerous facilities already. The outlying towns have old arenas that could be replaced!
I have read and digested most of the above comments and I agree with some and disagree with others. My gut reaction is that our council has missed the golden opportunity to access a large amount of “infrastructure” money that was being released by our Federal Government to stimulate the economy. A proposal put forth for an ECO Centre(Twin-Pad & Event Centre by the river) by the Kinsmen Club of Chatham would have put our community on the map so to speak but decisions were made that scuttled the project. What the Municipality needs is to be creative in today’s economy and come up with developments that will attract tourist dollars. I support a Sports Complex with a Twin-Pad Arena and an attached Event Centre that would allow the community and its promoters to put on shows and events on a bit of a larger scale thereby attracting tourists. Next year is the last year for the Kinsmen Auditorium and outside of the Convention Centre at the New Holiday Inn Express there will be no buildings left to house larger events in or near Chatham. Hopefully administration and council will start moving forward with some of the recommendations in the New Recreational Master Plan that was submitted to council before the election. Bob Christie, Kinsmen Club of Chatham