St. Clair pitches $35 million arena/community complex to donors

The Moore Sports Complex may be getting a $35 million facelift.
Earlier this year, Township council created a committee to look at the issues facing the aging facility which is home to two ice pads and a pool. It has a direct ammonia system for ice making – one of the last arenas in the country to have the volatile gas circulating in pipes in the flood beneath the ice surface. Its change rooms also need a major facelift to make them accessible.
The committee came up with a number of options to deal with the outstanding issues. Building a brand new complex would cost about $61 million. It also looked at rebuilding the complex in phases and add a new gym or turf facility to the complex.
Township Clerk Jeff Baranek says the committee is leaning toward a five-year plan which would see a new ice pad built in 2020 and renovations to Rink One as well as a new gym/turf facility and new aquatics and recreation centre by 2025 for around $35 million.
Baranek says the preliminary concept allows the fundraiser hired by the municipality to go out and start raising money. “It’s simpler to pitch a project that you can produce a picture of,” says Baranek. .
The committee has given the fundraiser and his committee six months to look at what can be raised before moving ahead with a formal plan and any approvals from council.
Meantime, Mayor Steve Arnold has already been talking to upper levels of government about funding. He says because much of the infrastructure funding available now is for projects which refurbish older facilities, there is a good opportunity to get grants. And he says council is hopeful up to half of the cost can be raised in the community. “Council will not be borrowing as much as it can to do this project, this money has to be raised and there has to be money there to sustain this in the future.”