'Digging a deeper hole': Councillor wants Coliseum demolished as cost balloons to roughly $35M
It was heaven for hockey fans in orange and blue for more than four decades, but for nearly five years the old Coliseum has resulted in nothing but red on Edmonton's budget.
While the building sits empty, the city confirms Edmonton taxpayers are spending more than $1 million every year to "maintain" the "dark" facility.
At least one councillor feels now is the time, despite tight city finances, to pay the hefty demolition bill for the former home of the Oilers.
"By doing nothing, we’re actually digging a deeper hole," Ward Metis Coun. Ashley Salvador said Tuesday.
"I would describe it as an eyesore. You know, it’s a burden and a blight on the neighbourhood and it has been for a really long time."
The Oilers and Oil Kings left for Rogers Place in 2016. The city took the building over in 2018.
City budget documents state it'll cost about $35 million to remove the old arena, up from an initial estimate of $12 million.
While city staff list the demolition as "not recommended for funding" in the next four years, Salvador is urging action now to save future bills.
"I hope that my colleagues will be able to see that this is, yeah, just the financially prudent thing to do," she said.
OTHER IDEAS HAVE FLOPPED
There have been pitches to repurpose the nearly 50-year-old building that was more recently called Rexall Place, but all have faded away.
Hockey Canada proposed an academy and four community rinks in 2017. There was a vision to transform the Coliseum into apartments in 2018.
And in 2020, a group that included former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel wanted to turn the mothballed arena into a centre for local sports including basketball, volleyball and track.
- City council to vote on Hockey Canada proposal Tuesday
- Local group behind ambitious pitch to re-develop Coliseum, surrounding land
- Mandel part of group trying to save Coliseum from the wrecking ball
Mandel told CTV News Edmonton Tuesday that he still thinks the Coliseum is worth saving but "it seems no one else at the city agrees."
The former mayor fears the $35 million demolition estimate from 2019 is much higher now. He also suspects there's little interest in redeveloping the land.
Still, Mandel feels he's done all he could do to make the building an asset rather than a pile of rubble.
Part of what makes it difficult to repurpose the Coliseum is a legal agreement between Oilers owner Daryl Katz and the city that says the Coliseum will not compete with Rogers Place
EXHIBITION LANDS
Indecision also comes with a cost in this case and it's taxpayers covering the roughly $3,400 a day in maintenance fees.
Ward Sspomitapi Coun. Jo-Anne Wright figures that price will rise this winter because of high utility bills.
"I know that for a lot of people, it does have that special meaning for them. But I think there’s much better use that we can make of that property," Wright told CTV News Edmonton.
The city still has long-term plans to turn the former Northlands site into everything from green space to houses to light industrial in a project called Edmonton Exhibition Lands.
"People are ultimately excited by the end vision of a walkable, mixed-use transit-oriented, complete community in a central core neighbourhood. But again, they recognize that the Coliseum needs to go, in order to ultimately realize that vision," Salvador said.
Budget talks resume at Edmonton City Hall on Wednesday, where councillors are trying to squeeze a number of projects and initiatives in while keeping a property tax increase near four per cent.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Israeli forces seize Rafah border crossing in Gaza, putting ceasefire talks on knife's edge
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as ceasefire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife’s edge.
There's actually no such thing as vegetables. Here's why you should eat them anyway
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
The Met Gala was in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among the standout stars
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
Mediterranean staple may lower your risk of death from dementia, study finds
A daily spoonful of olive oil could lower your risk of dying from dementia, according to a new study by Harvard scientists.
Noelia Voigt resigns as Miss USA, citing her mental health
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
An El Nino-less summer is coming. Here's what that could mean for Canada
As Canadians brace themselves for summer temperatures, forecasters say a weakening El Nino cycle doesn’t mean relief from the heat.
Winnipeg man admits to killing four women, argues he's not criminally responsible
Defence lawyers of Jeremy Skibicki have admitted in court the accused killed four Indigenous women, but argues he is not criminally responsible for the deaths by way of mental disorder – this latest development has triggered a judge-alone trial rather than a jury trial.
Man banned from owning animals after fatal Calgary dog attack
The owner of three Calgary dogs that got loose and mauled a woman to death in 2022 has been ordered to pay a $15,000 fine within one year and banned from owning any animal for 15 years.
Have you been removed from your family doctor’s patient list for visiting an Ontario walk-in clinic?
Some Ontarians are expressing frustration after they said that they were removed from their family doctor’s patient list for visiting a walk-in clinic in a process being called “de-rostering.”