City council voted 7-4 to explore costs and options for new arena, instead of fixing the main arena and Jack Ballantyne
The City of Welland is moving forward with exploring options on building a new arena.
City reports show the Welland main arena is near end of life, while Jack Ballantyne arena is in very poor condition.
Councillor John Chiocchio was against, pointing to other more pressing concerns. "We're asking our citizens of Welland to cough up money because that's what we would like to see. But, we don't know what's happening in the world... are car prices going to be going up? Are grocery prices going to be going up?"
Council choose this over renovating the existing arenas, while the same night voting to proceed with further exploration of funding the South Niagara hospital build.
The vote on the arena doesn't mean at this point a commitment to spend over $100-million.
Councillor Sharmila Setaram noted there is demand. "Para-olympic teams, and various sports at our facilities, (the arenas) don't really enable that kind of participation, or at least it's limited. We heard about lacrosse, summer sport training, and building... baseball training, pickleball, ball hockey."
Councillors against spoke of other spending priorities such as roads and hospitals.
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