Got a cool million?
[attach]3460[/attach]If you’re looking to leave a legacy and you happen to have a million dollars to spare, you might think of getting in touch with the Leaside Arena Expansion Committee.
For the past few months, the committee has been quietly courting donors to help fund a much-needed [url=https://streeter.ca/plans-underway-for-new-indoor-skating-rink.html]second rink at the Leaside Memorial Community Gardens[/url].
“What we’ve been doing is a quiet phase — a lot of behind the scenes work with different people, corporations and whatnot, trying to identify larger donors. We’ve been doing it for the last three months and we’ve had some success,” said Paul Mercer, chair of the expansion committee.
They don’t have a big fish yet, but if a contributor is willing to step up, they could see their name in scoreboard lights.
“There are naming opportunities,” said fundraising chair Charlene Kalia. “For any companies that are interested, there definitely is that opportunity. If they want to name the arena after them it’s a million bucks.”
In total, the community needs to come up with $2.5 million by the end of 2012 in order to satisfy its share of the estimated $9.5 million cost of the new rink.
Last spring an [url=https://streeter.ca/gift-for-new-leaside-rink.html]anonymous Leaside family[/url] took a $1 million bite out of that figure, allowing the city to retain an architect to begin detailed design work on the project. With the city pitching in $7 million, to be paid back through operating revenue over the next 30 years, that leaves roughly $1.1 million for the community to raise.
Still, Mercer said he’s confident the project is moving ahead as never before.
“We’re still on target,” he said. “We’re working with the architects … and they’re working with the planning people at the city.
“And the hope is we’ll be able to break ground in August.”
In May 2008, city council voted to buy the [url=https://streeter.ca/city-buying-land-next-to-leaside-rink.html]land at 1075 Millwood Rd[/url]. for the purpose of building a second arena next to the existing one.
Councillor John Parker said city staff and the community are enthusiastic supporters of the project.
“The tempo is really ramping up,” Parker said. “All of the necessary factors are moving in the right direction towards approving a project and getting started with it.”
Although the new arena has been in the works for over a decade now, Mercer said people are finally starting to see the project as a reality.
“Many people over the last 12 years or so have thought ‘yeah well, we’ve had so many false starts,’” Mercer said. “There are still skeptics … but they’re becoming greatly in the minority as we move further along.”
Building on the momentum, the expansion committee was set to hold a fundraising comedy evening Jan. 28 at the On The Park Events and Conference Centre.
About $26,000 had already been raised through ticket sales prior to the event, and Mayor Rob Ford was expected to attend.
Mercer said the next step would be submitting the detailed architectural designs to the city for approval in the coming months. If shovels go in the ground by the end of the summer, the new arena could open as early as September 2012.
