Sault Ste. Marie is back on the convention and concert trail.
Construction of the city’s new $25-million arena, the Steelback Centre, is nearing completion for an early fall celebratory opening.
Under the project management of Bondfield Construction, the city is billing the multi-purpose spectator facility as Northern Ontario’s premiere event venue in attracting conventions, trade shows and other events to the community.
“The building’s on schedule and we’re looking at an opening ceremony in the third week of September,” says Trevor Zachary, marketing and events manager for the city-owned facility.
The Steelback Centre is expected to be substantially complete by late August with 4,400 seats installed and some interior finishing work still left to be done. Plywood barriers surrounding the Queen Street construction site were coming down in July.
Although the downtown facility will be used mainly for hockey, the main bowl and arena floor will seat more than 6,000 for concerts and is expected to fill a much-needed void in addressing the lack of a full-size trade show and convention centre.
Zachary says the city is looking to attract national and international events and have either booked or are awaiting confirmation on 12 “fairly major” shows scheduled between October 2006 and April 2007.
A figure skating exhibition is slated for December followed by a spring home show next April, a forestry trade expo in June and a Harley Davidson bike rally for August. Further ahead the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontari o Conference has booked for 2009 with the Finnish Grand Festival scheduled for 2010.
Zachary says an emphasis is being placed in marketing the building as a multi-use spectator facility.
“When you walk onto the event level, we want to people to get the impression this is an event centre rather than a hockey rink.”
The main level contains 6,330 square feet with the potential of holding 1,400 patrons on the floor.
There are as many as 10 different meeting and gathering rooms located throughout the building, including their largest breakout room of 1,925 square feet with a capacity of almost 200 people.
A second 900-square-foot multi-purpose room can be sectioned off in half. VIP suites and an upstairs board room on the suite level can be utilized for various functions.
The building is also equipped with a full kitchen to feed up to 100 VIPs and suite holders.
Besides plenty of on-site parking holding as many as 500 vehicles, a Bay Street entranceway in the building’s marshaling and unloading area allows for a transport truck to be driven onto the event floor.
A state-of-the-art audio system has been installed and considered one of the best in any facility in Canada. As well, there are Internet hook ups throughout the building. A new multimillion-dollar scoreboard will have the ability to show video replay.
Zachary, who regularly holds tours for interested business and community groups, says the facility is creating a greater local and national buzz as the project nears completion.
“People who might not have felt very positive about the project are seeing the building and I’m getting calls daily saying, ‘We’d love to get in there. We’re excited about it or I’m buying season tickets.’ It’s been a very good spin for Sault Ste. Marie.”
Concert promoters are calling on a regular basis asking for dates to route tours through the Sault.
“It’s getting Sault Ste. Marie back on the map.”
In May, Steelback Brewery won the naming rights for the arena. The Tiverton, Ontario brewing company’s logo will be on the marquee of the building when the city’s Ontario Hockey League team takes to the ice in their new digs in early October.
The brewery also won exclusive advertising and draft beer service in a 10-year deal worth $1.35 million ($135,000 annually).
Steelback will also be the sole supplier for bottled and canned soft drinks they sell under the name D’Angelo Brands.
The new facility replaces the adjacent 57-year-old Memorial Gardens, which was demolished in June.
The Gardens’ historic landmark, the Memorial Tower, is being preserved as a war memorial cenotaph and the entire city block between Queen and Bay Streets will be named Memorial Square.
www.city.sault-ste-marie.on.ca
www.bondfield.com (Bondfield Construction)
www.sault-canada.com (Tourism Sault Ste. Marie)
