Printed from the Review
New four-pad arena more than just ice sheets
Posted By JENNIFER PELLEGRINI
Pink seats. A skate-up concession stand with a fireplace. A foundation built with the remains of buildings formerly on the site.
The new Niagara Falls four-pad arena complex, due to break ground in 2008 and be ready for skaters and hockey players by 2009, could make a name for itself in the sports world by incorporating those unique aspects into the design.
“It will be truly unique,” said Mick Wolfe, campaign chairman for the new four-pad, which will be located on Fourth Avenue near the intersection of Thorold Stone Road and Stanley Avenue.
Wolfe was one of many members of the committee helping to oversee construction of the 196,000-square-foot building on hand for two public houses at the MacBain Centre Thursday.
About 120 people turned out over the two sessions – one in the afternoon, another in the evening – to view plans for the complex and ask questions about its design.
“I think it’s really nice and I love where it’s going – in the area that needs it the most,” said Marcel Frechette, who attended the afternoon session with his son, David.
David, 13, will get just a couple of years of ice time in the complex as a recreational player before moving on to pickup hockey, but he said he likes the way the arena looks.
Wolfe and municipal parks and recreation director Denyse Morrissey said the seat sale has been a “fantastic success” so far, with more than $30,000 in pledges rolling in.
Many of those pledges are for the “In the Pink,” seats – a ring of two rows of pink seats in the centre of the arena raising funds for an ultrasound machine to diagnose cancer at Greater Niagara General Hospital.
Morrissey said she expects the 433 seats will sell out, netting nearly $22,000 for the equipment.
Wolfe said he hopes it will be the only arena in Canada where every seat bears the name of a supporter. Regular blue seats are available at $200, while the pink seats cost $250, with $50 going to the GNGH Foundation.
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One of the more interesting features, Wolfe said, is a plan to create a skate-up concession stand, which would lead into an area where skaters could sit by a fire and with their hot chocolate or snack.
While those amenities may be something visitors can see, one aspect they’d never imagine is the use of concrete, gravel and soil already on the site being incorporated into the design.
Project manager David Schram said the excavation work underway at the former Cytec site has collected enough debris to ground up seven tonnes of gravel an hour – all of which will be reused to make the foundation, parking lots and culverts for the arena.
Steel is also being melted down and reused and any trees removed from the land will be chipped and used for mulch to protect new trees planted there.
Article ID# 778704
© 2007 , Osprey Media. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Niagara Falls Review acticles reprinted with permission by the authority of Joe Wallace, City Editor of the Niagara Falls Review.
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