Surrey is surrounded by municipalities with arenas.
It appears that the mayor of Surrey, British Columbia is ready to spend $200 million Canadian or about $146 million US to build a 10,000-seat arena in the city. Brenda Locke does not have an anchor tenant yet nor does she have a development partner but Locke has seed money to get moving on the project and she hopes all the components needed to build the venue will fall into place later this year. Surrey is about 20 miles from Vancouver, a city that has two major indoor arenas, one of which houses the National Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks franchise and the other is the home of the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Vancouver franchise. To the east of Surrey, about 15 miles away in Langley, there is a 5,276-seat arena which houses the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants franchise. To the southeast of Surrey, about 44 miles away is Abbotsford which has an arena that houses the Vancouver Canucks’ American Hockey League minor league affiliate. There are four arenas within an hour of Surrey, why does Surrey need an arena? The city is not going to get the Canucks franchise and more than likely not going to get the women’s league hockey franchise. The National Basketball Association won’t be interested in Surrey as a potential market.
Locke wants to build an arena-village with the arena as the centerpiece of the development. There is 100,000 square feet available for retail and office space and a hotel with conference facilities. “This will become a place for families to enjoy the best sporting and entertainment venues right here in the city of Surrey,” Locke said. Surrey is a Vancouver suburb with a sizable population of more than 568,000 people. Four years ago, Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum suggested that Surrey needed a 60,000-seat stadium. McCallum lost his bid for re-election ending that plan.
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