05-08-2024, 12:57 PM
Personally, I'd like to see the Aud grow their seats enough to attract shows that currently skip over us because the Aud is too small. Budweiser Stage seats 16k, the London Labatt Centre seats 10k for events (9k for hockey). We should absolutely be the sort of city that can bring in mid-sized music acts.
It would potentially be neat to see the façade of the Aud facing East/Borden get saved, and reused as the front of a new athletics building, or something like a community centre (indoor turf field, basketball court, pool, community rental space, take your pick).
If they chose to purchase the 5-6 properties that line Ottawa St, a new arena could be built facing Ottawa, and the Rangers could keep playing in the original building as the new one gets built. It would be located in a prime spot for an LRT stop if a line eventually gets put down Ottawa, and in the meantime would have the iExpress right out front. And a parking garage under the new arena! Let's just scrap all the surface parking on that property and build out an awesome park/athletics area in the recovered space - basketball courts, a splash pad, a second baseball field, a couple hundred trees to create a little urban forest to lessen the traffic noise from the highway, etc.
This is probably a stretch, but it would be fantastic if they also built space for some commercial right beside the Aud, for a few restaurants and a coffee shop. With the multiple new high-rises earmarked for the King/Ottawa area, they'd likely get plenty of foot traffic even on non-hockey/show nights.
It would potentially be neat to see the façade of the Aud facing East/Borden get saved, and reused as the front of a new athletics building, or something like a community centre (indoor turf field, basketball court, pool, community rental space, take your pick).
If they chose to purchase the 5-6 properties that line Ottawa St, a new arena could be built facing Ottawa, and the Rangers could keep playing in the original building as the new one gets built. It would be located in a prime spot for an LRT stop if a line eventually gets put down Ottawa, and in the meantime would have the iExpress right out front. And a parking garage under the new arena! Let's just scrap all the surface parking on that property and build out an awesome park/athletics area in the recovered space - basketball courts, a splash pad, a second baseball field, a couple hundred trees to create a little urban forest to lessen the traffic noise from the highway, etc.
This is probably a stretch, but it would be fantastic if they also built space for some commercial right beside the Aud, for a few restaurants and a coffee shop. With the multiple new high-rises earmarked for the King/Ottawa area, they'd likely get plenty of foot traffic even on non-hockey/show nights.