What's hilarious is wanting to gamble away money building a stadium downtown in a mid sized Ontario region like this. This isn't a major US or Canadian city where it can be justified. Who are we going to attract with a stadium/auditorium downtown? Local residents for a couple minor league hockey games? Knitting trade shows? A weekend convention for anime or comics? A concert with some crappy band? The City of Kitchener just spent hundreds of thousands (or was it millions?) of dollars on a ridiculous Rolling Stones boomer nostalgia exhibit and that completely flopped.
We don't have the population, we don't have any sort of teams who would be willing to locate here, we don't have enough links with neighbouring regions that would draw people in (it's what...2 hours on a GO Train to get here from Toronto or London?), we have minimal investment in arts and culture - so we won't be holding Drake concerts or whatever people are into these days and so on. We simply do not need a stadium downtown Kitchener worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't even think our own tax payers would want to waste the money on that and our politicians won't risk their political careers for something that could be a complete failure.
Maybe when we hit 1 million plus people, have better public transit across the entire 3 cities and better transportation links to other neighbouring cities it would make sense. But now? No sane urban planner, politician or tax payer would believe something like a stadium on Charles Street makes sense.
And while I don't agree with danbrotherston much, NIMBYism is kinda valid here. Who wants to live in a condo or historic, low rise heritage neighbourhood next to a loud and busy stadium/auditorium? Or deal with increased car traffic downtown? Not everyone wants to take the bus or LRT. We just spent all this money on narrowing streets for better bike infrastructure as well, particularly the streets right next to this location. Or, who wants to disrupt Victoria Park - which is normally a serene, relaxing place with lakes, wildlife and space for calming recreation?
The only way a stadium makes sense downtown Kitchener is if you stand to benefit economically, but there is so much more to building a great city than generating profit.
We don't have the population, we don't have any sort of teams who would be willing to locate here, we don't have enough links with neighbouring regions that would draw people in (it's what...2 hours on a GO Train to get here from Toronto or London?), we have minimal investment in arts and culture - so we won't be holding Drake concerts or whatever people are into these days and so on. We simply do not need a stadium downtown Kitchener worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't even think our own tax payers would want to waste the money on that and our politicians won't risk their political careers for something that could be a complete failure.
Maybe when we hit 1 million plus people, have better public transit across the entire 3 cities and better transportation links to other neighbouring cities it would make sense. But now? No sane urban planner, politician or tax payer would believe something like a stadium on Charles Street makes sense.
And while I don't agree with danbrotherston much, NIMBYism is kinda valid here. Who wants to live in a condo or historic, low rise heritage neighbourhood next to a loud and busy stadium/auditorium? Or deal with increased car traffic downtown? Not everyone wants to take the bus or LRT. We just spent all this money on narrowing streets for better bike infrastructure as well, particularly the streets right next to this location. Or, who wants to disrupt Victoria Park - which is normally a serene, relaxing place with lakes, wildlife and space for calming recreation?
The only way a stadium makes sense downtown Kitchener is if you stand to benefit economically, but there is so much more to building a great city than generating profit.