It started out as a simple enough idea when in 2003 then-mayor Garth Vallely threw out the thought Medicine Hat may need a new, modern event centre.
The last 12 years have proven getting something actually built isn't simple at all.
The following is a year-by-year timeline of events taken from the News archives leading up to the building of the Regional Event Centre.
• In January, then-mayor Vallely announces his intention to see a new event centre built during an address to the Chamber of Commerce.
• Vallely estimates the cost of the proposed at $30 million with operating costs at around $1 million a year.
• After winning the 2004 election, Vallely reiterates his commitment.
• A feasibility study is launched and an Ad Hoc Arena Feasibility Committee is formed and chaired by Ald. Graham Kelly.
• City recreation pegs a conservative estimate for the beginning of construction at three to fi ve years.
• The feasibility report is released in December identifying 14 possible sites. Costs are estimated to be between $39 million and $55 million depending on the size.
• A second feasibility study is commissioned and a new Arena Steering Committee is formed with Kelly once again at the helm.
• The cost is pegged at closer to $60 million for the facility with 6,000 seats, expandable to 8,000.
• The second feasibility report is released and reveals concern on the part of Tigers ownership regarding the project.
• The cost estimate is pegged at $85 to $98 million for a 7,000-seat building.
• In January, Box Springs Business Park announces its proposal, offering land to the city for $1.
• In April, aldermen vote to defer the arena issue to the next council that would eventually see Mayor Norm Boucher elected in October.
• A new committee is formed in June to look at ways to fund the new event centre, the Regional Major Event Centre Committee (RMECC) with Bill Yuill as its chair. The city also forms its own Event Centre Committee with Ald. Jamie White as chair.
200 2007 2005 2005 2004 2004 ARTIST RENDERING OF EVENT CENTRE INTERIOR Road to the
Event Centre bumpy, but opening
2006 2006
day should shine on the city's newest jewel
COLLIN GALLANT F 22 2015 REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA
rom a first mention in a 2004 New Year’s address to an expected inaugural puck-drop in the fall of 2015, the road to opening the Medicine Hat Regional Event Centre has
been long and arduous.
Construction of the 6,129-seat rink facility will take in total about two years — about one-quarter the time it took to debate and approve financing, size, location and even determine the need for a such a facility.
The city plans to take possession of the $61.4-million building, part of a total $74-million project, in August.
A construction tour in February showed finishing touches, drywall and paint going on some parts of the facility.
“It’s better than I thought it was going to be,” said Mayor Ted Clugston, who once joked he’d voted
‘yes’ five times on the project over the years as an alderman.
“I was a little worried to be honest, because it took 10 years and we kept lowering what we were willing to pay. There were bids and more bids, and changes in scope, and I thought we might have cheaped out, because, frankly, we got a fairly good deal.”
The Arena opened in 1970 after the old Arena Gardens burned to the ground in the spring of 1969.
But the building with short benches, few concessions and an end-zone press box wasn’t holding up.
It was long on memories but short on amenities, dressing room space and headroom in the lower corridors.
It also lacked seats.
The losing Tigers teams of the late 1990s had unleashed a new, fast-paced, high-scoring style in the 2000s. They won league titles in 2004 and 2007, and
event centre timeline
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