Further to my emails of Febrary 10 and 11 below, I have now completed a study of Ontario Hockey League (OHL) parking rates. My findings are most enlightening and I hope these will help inform Council’s decisions.
According to the Mercury’s February 8 article on this issue, City parking staff are recommending the proposed increase because many cities charge much more for special event parking than Guelph does. Findings of my informal research do not support that claim, especially with respect to OHL Storm games.
The OHL consists of 20 teams, with 17 in Ontario and 3 in the USA. I questioned team administrators and, where necessary, contacted municipal parking staff, arena management companies and parking administration contractors associated with various facilities.
Of the twenty cities, 75 percent (15) do not charge municipal parking fees directly associated with OHL games. (There may be paid municipal parking within walking distance of game facilities, but rates remain unchanged from regular, non-game days. These include:
• Barrie Colts
• Belleville Bulls
• Brampton Battalion
• London Knights*
• Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors
• Niagara Ice Dogs
• Oshawa Generals
• Erie Otters (limited but free)
• Kitchener Rangers
• Owen Sound Attack
• Plymouth Whalers*
• Saginaw Spirit*
• Sarnia Sting
• Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
• Windsor Spitfires** Notes
London Knights: Normal, daily municipal parking rates remain constant without any reference to activity levels in the arena, such as OHL games, special events (or no events whatsoever). Coin operated pay and display – $2.00 per hour or $6.00 maximum municipal fee from 5:00 pm to midnight, seven days per week, even when the Labatt Centre is dark and empty.
Plymouth Whalers (Michigan): Compuware Sports Arena is privately owned and charges US $5.00 for OHL games (i.e., private parking). It charges higher private parking for “special events” depending on the attraction. Hockey is not deemed a “special event”.
Saginaw Spirit (Michigan): The Dow Event Center (county owned) has contracted SMG (a major facilities management corporation) to control and operate this arena. SMG’S private parking fees are US $5.00, but Spirit season ticket holders receive a 40% discount by purchasing a season parking pass for US $129 – resulting in approximately US $3.40 per game. SMG does not consider OHL games to be “special events”. For concerts and other shows, their private parking rates increase to US $10.
Windsor Spitfires: Free for first 1,000 vehicles.
Only twenty-five percent of OHL municipalities (including Guelph) charge parking fees directly targeting OHL games:
• Ottawa ’67s: Parking for all commercial events at the city’s Landsdowne Park (OHL games, soccer, football, concerts or trade shows) costs $5.00. But due to frequent individual and concurrent event programming, this rate applies “almost every day of the year” and is reportedly tantamount to a regular daily municipal parking fee for using those lots. In fact, the same fee applies to those who park at Landsdowne only to skate for free on the Rideau Canal nearby.However, Ottawa ’67s season ticket holders alone are allowed to purchase prepaid discounted parking passes in volume. They buy 10 parking ticket coupons for $40 (a 20% discount). Season ticket holders therefore park for $4.00 per game. According to the city’s Landsdowne Park Event Manager, it’s “a win-win arrangement”. The ’67s team, as a major tenant, is selling more seasons tickets with this incentive – while the city is reportedly collecting additional parking revenue through more regular and frequent hockey attendance.
• Kingston Frontenacs: Coin operated pay and display lots. For OHL games at the K-Rock Centre, fans pay $5.00 immediately across the street, or $3.00 only one block from the rink – (about the same distance from the west end of our West Parkade to seats on the east side of the Sleeman arena). Kingston does not consider Frontenacs games to be special events. Parking for K-Rock concerts in the same lots costs more – $8.00 at the arena and $5.00 at the other nearby location.• Peterborough Petes: $3.00 for OHL games and the same for special events.
• Sudbury Wolves: Municipal parking across the street is $2.00 for OHL games – same for special events. (There is also very limited preferred parking immediately next to the arena at $3.00, but since all revenue from those sales goes to the Wolves team, this constitutes private parking.)
• Guelph Storm: $2.00 municipal fee, same for concerts, shows.
At greatly increased expense, our City chose to build the Guelph Sports and Entertainment Centre (Sleeman Centre) in its present location to promote redevelopment of our downtown core. Unfortunately, that decision proved even more costly than anticipated and we are still servicing substantial related debts as the sole owner. “Build it and they will come” was the underlying strategy. The proposed increase in event parking, including Guelph Storm parking clearly runs contrary to our overall objectives for downtown redevelopment.
Hopefully, like the large majority of other OHL municipalities, Guelph will stop charging special event parking fees targeting OHL games. On a weekly and bi-weekly basis, these regularly scheduled games in “Hockeyville” put bums in seats, shoppers in stores and diners in restaurants. CS