Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Complex

[UrbanWaterloo]

Proposal to improve parking at The Aud supported
May 28, 2012 | City of Kitchener | Link

Earlier today, the community and infrastructure services committee endorsed a plan to proceed with a series of parking and transportation approaches proposed by the Kitchener Rangers hockey club to assist with improving the current and future parking for hockey games and other special events once the Aud expansion is complete.

The Kitchener Rangers’ proposal identified the following approaches to deal with travelling to or parking at the Aud. Each approach requires some level of support from the city.

Bus “To – From US” service - Various businesses across the city serve as locations for people to park their cars and board a shuttle bus that will take them to and from the hockey games.

Carpooling lot - An existing parking lot at the Aud would be designated as a carpooling lot for cars with three or more passengers. Doing so will encourage spectators to increase the number of passengers in their vehicles and maximize the number of spots available for parking. The city will also support the Kitchener Rangers in promoting carpooling to residents who attend games and events at the Aud.

Grand River Transit - The city will work with the Rangers and the Region to promote public transit as an option through public education, which is anticipated to increase ridership and reduce the number of vehicles coming to the Aud.

Paid lot - An existing parking lot at the Aud will be designated as a paid lot. Revenues generated from this lot will become one of the potential funding sources for the parking and transportation initiatives.

Limited expansion of on-site parking - The city will investigate the feasibility and costs associated with a limited expansion of on-site parking.

Staff shuttles - The city will investigate the feasibility and costs associated with a staff shuttle and report back on the findings. If staff who work at the Aud park off site, more spots will be available to the public.

Enforcement of current parking regulations - The city will enhance its communications to the community, reminding residents and drivers of local parking regulations.

General education - Staff recommend providing support developing maps and information flyers, and incentives to encourage alternate travel initiatives to the Aud for hockey games and events.

City staff will report back to the committee in one year with an analysis of the progress of these approaches.

“What’s proposed is excellent, and I’d like to see some information on how the paid lot performs for us, so we can look at a similar option for future parking strategies as well,” said Coun. Bil Ioannidis, vice chair of the community and infrastructure services committee.

[DHLawrence]

What exactly makes it a stadium if the grandstands are being demolished? Without the stands it's just a big weed-grown oval.

[.FLH.]

What exactly makes it a stadium if the grandstands are being demolished? Without the stands it's just a big weed-grown oval.

It wouldn't be a weed grown oval if the city didn't neglect it. If they do take it all out, then it should be replaced somewhere in the city, the track and facilities. Albeit on a much smaller scale. It is a shame a region of 550,000 doesn't have an 8 lane track and facilities. Granted it doesn't need to be an olympic stadium it should meet the needs of our community.

Before the doldrums of we don't need a track facility gets going. I'll answer the question of who uses a track. The same people that use our hockey arenas, ball diamonds etc. What I don't get is..if the city wanted to tear down a hockey arena..lets say Grand River to make more parking for the school..all hell would break loose. I'll give credit the track is in poor unusable shape, but the field is one of the nicest in the city that is still grass. It would be a shame to pave it all over for cars and not have a replacement.

[UrbanWaterloo]

June 13, 2012

[Greg Moore]

Wow. Those upper seats will be painfully far from the action.

[.FLH.]

Wow. Those upper seats will be painfully far from the action.

My father and I have season tickets on that side of the rink 8 rows up. During a game last year we went for a walk and figured the first row of the new seats will be atleast 17 or 18 rows from the rink. Do to the insane rake of the seats at the Aud this isn't that far laterally but rather just super high up. The view will be awesome, you'll just be sitting in the clouds. Granted you'll have more leg room and a beer in your hand

[KevinL]

On the Cententennial stadium front - and running tracks in particular - did we know about this?

State-of-the-art track facility debuts this fall in Hespeler

Jeff Hicks, The Record | Mon Jul 2 2012 | LINK

Welcome to Cambridge. Welcome to Hespeler.Welcome to the home of a new $1.4-million track and field complex being built by the public school board, with $500,000 from the city, on 13 board-owned acres beside Jacob Hespeler Secondary School.

[UrbanWaterloo]

July 12, 2012

[RangersFan]

On the Cententennial stadium front - and running tracks in particular - did we know about this?

State-of-the-art track facility debuts this fall in Hespeler

Jeff Hicks, The Record | Mon Jul 2 2012 | LINK

I know I didn't until I seen the The Record article.

[UrbanWaterloo]

August 20, 2012

[T-Bone]

[T-Bone]

Here are a fwe more pictures.

[panamaniac]

Everything seems on schedule with this project. The end result is going to be a wickedly "lopsided" arena, but I'm sure it won't deter the fans.

Nice skyline pic as well - the Aud needs a summer terrace up on the roof!

[Bristolman]

Wow, what a skewed view! Nonetheless, it will be fun to have even more people in there!

[KingandOttawa]

Any signs up yet for the commuter parking lot, the paid parking lot or the shuttle service to local bars/restaurants?

[.FLH.]

Any signs up yet for the commuter parking lot, the paid parking lot or the shuttle service to local bars/restaurants?

There was a map at the exhibition games of 5 locations in town. A can remember a couple...Moose Winooskis in sportsworld, Whale and Ale on Victoria, Montana's on Ira Needles, There was a location downtown Kitchener, I believe two restaurants. Sunrise might have been on there too... but don't quote me on that.

It stated door to car service started leaving 15 minutes after game end. I don't know when pick up was before game time. My father and I have season tickets and walk from Stanley Park, so I wasn't that interested in it.

If I had to make an educated guess, I would say the carpool lot and the paid lots would be on the Ottawa St. Entrance. Paid on the left and carpool on the right. It all depends on the amount of carpooling.

[Smore]

I think it was eight locations. The downtown Kitchener spot was not determined at the time of the public meeting, but FLH is right about Moose, Boardwalk, Whale and Ale. I think another spot was St Louis on Northfield. I don't think they announced all the locations then, but as I recall, when you looked at the map, and the advertising in the arena, you could generally put two and two together...

[Smore]

Eight locations!
http://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news/ran...e-next-season/

[Smore]

Rangers Season Tickets packages came out yesterday. Parking changes included:

Paid Parking
Lot A, located north of Sherbourne Ave and southwest of the Aud will be designated for Season Ticket holders paid parking.

Carpool Lot
Lot B, west of the Ottawa St driveway will be designated for carpool parking, requiring 3 or more occupants.

Rangers Carpool
The Rangers will be hosting season ticket holders in groups by postal code, with the intention of introducing members to each other and encouraging carpooling.

Rangers Express
The Rangers will be partnering with local restaurants, including game day menus and bus shuttles to and from the games. The bus will leave 45 mins before the game and return 10 mins after the game. Emergency transportation will be provided if required by shuttle riders.

The departure points are:

• Montana's (Ottawa St)
• Montana's (The Boardwalk)
• Moose Winowski's (Sportsworld)
• St. Louis Bar and Grill (Northfield)
• Casey's (Victoria St)
• Casey's (Ottawa St S)
• Kitchener City Hall (various restaurants)

Grand River Transit
Improved service promised. Route 8 Fairview stops right in front of the Aud on game nights.

[bcwessel]

Grand River Transit
Improved service promised. Route 8 Fairview stops right in front of the Aud on game nights.

Route 8 always stops right in front of the Aud, on Ottawa Street next to the entrance to the southern parking lot. Does this mean that they intend to make an East/Shelbourne Route 8 detour? If so, that's a pretty steep price to pay to save Rangers game-specific transit riders a 200m walk. It's a pretty bad plan to try to encourage transit ridership by making overall service worse for everybody else for the benefit of a few. Perhaps a better strategy would be to improve the pedestrian experience between Ottawa and Shelbourne, so transit riders don't feel so bad about walking through the parking lot. Even better would be a major pedestrian-oriented facelift for Borden that would act as a promenade from iXpress/LRT straight to the front doors of the building (a 700m walk, which isn't unreasonable if the experience is good, even when the weather's a bit off).