Should Prospera been built bigger?
Copied from the Mar04 2005 Kelowna Capital News
Prospera Place is already too close for comfort
By CHERRILLE
Matt
Mar 04 2005
That was a great hockey game last Saturday at Prospera Place where the Rockets whipped Kootenay to take over first spot in the WHL.
I'm sure the people sitting in their nice comfortable seats enjoyed it because they could see the action on the ice. Unfortunately, most of the 350 people who had standing-room tickets weren't so lucky. Unless you were in the first one or two rows of standing-room, you couldn't see a thing except the heads in front of you.
There were also plenty of other hockey fans who couldn't get a ticket to the biggest game of the year so far.
There's a little bit of help on the way as the "peanut gallery," the temporary stands in the south end of the building that they used for the Memorial Cup, will be back soon. That should add about 100 seats.
It's still not enough though. I'm afraid Kelowna's beautiful new arena is already too small.
When the place opened in 1999 everyone raved about it and for good reason. Comparing the new building to old Memorial was like comparing Angelina Jolie to Camilla Parker Bowles. It still looks very nice today inside and out although it's far from perfect.
Besides being too small just six years after it opened, there are several other areas where it could use some improvements.
A sore spot of mine from day one is that cheap score clock at centre ice. I heard a rumour it wasn't even new when they installed it. I don't know if that's true, but it wouldn't surprise me. All it offers is the score, penalty minutes and the ability to post text messages like out-of-town scores.
Big deal! This is 2005, not 1965.
Kelowna hockey fans deserve a state-of-the-art score board, one with all of the bells and whistles and especially one that provides replays.
Vancouver hockey fans get replays, so do fans in Kamloops and most of the other new arenas in the league, but we're stuck with one that looks like it came from an outdoor lacrosse box.
If you are a Rockets fan, you should send a note to the operators of the building demanding a new clock that's worthy of the best fans in the WHL.
I'm sure the Rockets brass would like to see that as well, but don't complain to them as it's the responsibility of the building operator, not the tenants. Rocket investors have already had to use their own money to pay for improvements to the dressing rooms and other areas.
It's time for the operators of the building to step up and invest some of that large chunk of cash they're making back into the facility.
How about a few more concession areas or at least have more staff in the existing ones? Line-ups are brutal during the intermissions. Who wants to spend the entire intermission standing in line waiting to buy a bag of popcorn? Many people get fed up and return to their seats. You would think they would want to sell more $7 coolers, not less.
I know fans don't really care about the media but the press box is also way too small. I don't even bother going up there any more because there are never any seats.
I realize most of my complaints are pretty small. Some fans might not care one bit but they should because they pay top dollar for most of the events in the facility.
I go back to my original point which is the arena is already too small.
I think the politicians and city planners should have thought more about the future before entering into the deal with R.G. Properties.
I talked with leisure services director David Graham and he made some good arguments why they elected to build a facility which only seats 6,200 or so for hockey and 8,000 for concerts, but if there are already huge line-ups in there now, think of how bad it'll be in 10 years or 20 years from now when the population of Kelowna is expected to double!
I'm aware that R.G. Properties has been in the arena business for a while and they know how big a facility should be, but I still have a nagging suspicion that it is the size it is so the private company can make as much money as possible before it turns over the building to the city in the year 2029.
Can't fault them for that, it is a business after all. I'd just like to see them spend some money on it to make it better for the fans who spend their hard-earned bucks there.
I think the facility should have had a minimum of 10,000 seats from day one. Who cares if it isn't packed to the rafters every night?
No doubt, the price tag would have been quite a bit higher than the $19.5 million, of which the city contributed the land and $6 million and yes, it would cost more to clean up and heat the building, but I think the money should have been spent so we can enjoy it more and actually get a ticket to a Rockets game.
Graham says more tickets may be available in future years if the Rockets fall on hard times. That's no comfort because the fans want to watch them now when they're good!
Matt Cherrille is the sports director at CKOV 63.
rangers0@shaw.ca
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