Charles St GRT terminal redevelopment

[MidTowner]

Ottawa is trying again with the Le Breton Flats thing to get the Senators downtown... not too familiar with Ottawa but I was there this summer and the downtown was dead during the weekday I was there, and pretty quiet at night too.

It's been a long time since I went to a Storm game, but the arena there didn't seem to bring much traffic to the Quebec Street mall.

It seems to me that "going out" is less of a thing than it used to be, many folks don't have the budget for a night out anymore, and alcohol consumption is apparently declining too. Concerts are extremely expensive too.

I like the Kitchener Market, but my feeling is that an arena would end up more like that.

The Sleeman Centre is about half the size of the John Labatt Centre, for instance. Which is probably appropriate given Guelph's size, but it means fewer game-goers when the Storm are playing, and fewer of the bigger-draw concert acts that London is supposedly able to attract who will supposedly cause all kinds of spin-off benefits.

From what I can tell, the Sleeman Centre doesn't generate a lot of traffic at the Quebec Street mall, but also from what I can tell, Guelph's downtown is doing pretty well and is a pretty pleasant place to spend time. Again, especially considering the city's size.