Excellent Letter to the Editor in todays paper by Rod Bosch (Y) Event centre question Wednesday, April 2, 2014 Ray Smith is an interesting person (Forget An Event Centre, the Gardens Is Fine — letter, March 22). First he chaired a group that favoured an event centre if it was located in Innova Park. After the Phase 2 report showed that the downtown north core was the preferred site, Smith is now leading the Concerned Taxpayers group that opposes any event centre. Which is it? Mr. Smith continues to use fear mongering and partial truths to support his position. I admit that the Fort William Gardens is a sound structure, but can it readily serve our needs? I’ve been involved in several events at the Gardens and I know that technically, it is a struggle to put on any large scale event there. Proper lighting and television broadcast facilities for large events are two areas that will be addressed in a new centre. There is a reason why events such as the Scotties curling championship have not returned and it is the venue. There are other issues that make the Gardens no longer viable for today’s events market: • Washrooms and refreshment facilities all at one end of the building; • Limited suites availability; • Small seating; • Narrow aisles; and • Very poor acoustics. All of these would be addressed in a new facility. The operating deficit for the Gardens is $500,000 and can be greatly reduced by not having to run the ice plant and finding new tenants for the building. I don’t know what the focus group meetings will determine with respect to the future of the Gardens but I am willing to wait for that report. How can Smith speculate on a deficit for the new event centre? Is that not part of what the present negotiations with Thunder Bay Live! and Phase 3 are about? Why make such outlandish statements if not for the sole purpose of scaring people away from this project? Smith was on the board of the Thunder Bay Twins hockey club and he should know that no team ever expects a sellout at every game. The break-even point for the Twins was published at about 2,100 people when the Gardens was still capable of holding over 4,000 people. Smith states that city taxpayers are asking for a direct vote. Perhaps his statement should be some city taxpayers as I for one, being a city taxpayer, do not believe a plebiscite is needed and many people agree with me. Council has discussed the use of a well-designed random survey to measure support. Smith’s group rejects this scientific poll, yet he wants to tout the results of his own March 11 poll which showed 97 per cent of his group (whose sole purpose is to reject the event centre in the first place) want a plebiscite. The methodology of these voting results should be challenged especially since a video of the event shows that people were told to take extra copies of the vote home and then return them. I believe the city is studying all the facts and then reporting on them. If the event centre is feasible and all three levels of government come on board, I am fully in favour of building it in the downtown north core. If, on the other hand, it is shown not to be feasible, I can live with that decision as well. Also, if all three levels of government are not willing to share equally, that is another matter. Perhaps then a plebiscite would be in order, as you might then have a clear question to ask. Rod Bosch
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 16:55:38 +0000
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