Mayor hoping location for new Kitchener Aud will be known by 2022
Posted Jan 24, 2020 05:48:00 PM.
The Kitchener Auditorium is close to 70 years old, which has renewed talk of a possible replacement.
The city's mayor says there's already been some internal dialogue about what a new Aud would look like and where it might be located.
“It would be my hope, that … by the end of this term (2022), or the early part of the next term of the next council, the location question would need to be resolved.” Berry Vrbanovic told The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS, Friday morning.
During the previous term of council, staff were instructed to put potential locations for the new rink on their radar.
Vrbanovic also stressed that any decisions moving forward would require input from various community partners, “The number one key one is the Rangers, goes without question … then of course you have the Titans now, in terms of the basketball team … but there's so many other things that the Auditorium hosts, that you need to consider all that input and what's happening in the industry as a whole,”
The Aud was last renovated in 2012, when 1,000 seats were added, putting the capacity at 7,800 for hockey.
Vrbanovic says there seems to be two schools of thought of where the new rink should go, “There's one that think it should be built on the current site, the historical attachment to it, the proximity to the Expressway and so on. And others who think it should be built closer to the downtown, or in the downtown, to take advantage of existing parking, GRT, ION and so on,”
Regardless of where it ends up, Vrbanovic says the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium name will likely go with it, “Recognizing those who fought in our wars for the freedoms we have. I can't envision any scenario where that would not continue to be the case, regardless of where it is.”
He also cautions these are all just informal discussions, so no decisions are close to imminent.
with files from Paul McPhee
