According to a recent municipal survey, residents would like to see a new arena in Chatham but they're not willing to pay the price associated with it.
A public meeting was held at the Civic Centre in Chatham Thursday evening to go over the survey results. The survey, which was aimed at getting an idea on the level of interest in a proposed new arena, had 2,541 respondents, most of whom are Chatham residents. Nearly 70 per cent of respondents are people who currently utilize local arenas.
The majority of people surveyed are in favour of an arena development, whereas 29.43 per cent of respondents are not and would like to see current arenas maintained.
The options that featured new arenas included a $30 million facility with a single pad arena which received a measly 3.14 per cent of the vote. Another option for a $50 million twin pad-arena received 22.91 per cent of the vote. Most respondents (33.95 per cent) were in favour of a $65 million twin-pad facility that could house 4,000 spectators, as well as an ice pad with a 200-seat capacity. The other 10.57 per cent of the vote was categorized as "other".
Although many respondents would like to see a twin-pad facility in Chatham, nearly 900 people (35.31 per cent) said they were not willing to pay a tax increase to cover the costs. Meanwhile, 21.25 per cent of respondents said they would be willing to have a $30 tax increase to support a new facility. While most of the people surveyed were opposed to a tax increase to pay for a new facility, 82 per cent of respondents were also opposed to cutting other services to have that funding instead go towards a new arena.
At this time there is no funding from the provincial and/or federal government to support a new arena development. However, when asked if residents would prefer to wait for possible government funding, 50% said "yes" and 49% said "no".
The survey also questioned if perhaps residents would prefer a community centre rather than an arena. A community centre can include amenities such as libraries, arenas, fitness centres, and sports fields. The survey results show that respondents were almost completely split, 50.92 per cent would prefer a community centre development over an arena, while 49.08% answered that they would not.
The survey results will go to Chatham-Kent Council at a later date.
You can find a link to the full results by clicking here.
