Volume 96, Issue 21
Thursday October 3, 2002
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If you build it, they will come
By Ryan
Hickman
Gazette Staff
The banter and buzz is all about to come to an end and the final product has to stand up to its billing. The John Labatt Centre is getting very to close to finally opening its doors to the anxious masses.
The $45 million complex is being managed by Global Spectrum Facility Management, an arm of the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm, Comcast-Spectator, who own the Philadelphia Flyers and the Philadelphia 76ers.
The newest addition to London's downtown landscape has 9,100 permanent seats and 38 luxury suites, boasting the largest seating capacity of any building between Detroit and Toronto.
The arena's location – across from The Covent Garden Market – gives more Londoners access to entertainment and London Knights hockey games.
The Knights, the city's Ontario Hockey League team, drop the puck to open the arena on Friday, Oct. 11. The new location bodes especially well for Western students, who were less inclined to travel to the Icehouse, the previous home of the Knights.
"We are in the neighbourhood now. Before, for a student without a car, it was pretty hard to get out there," said Jim McKellar, the London Knights director of public relations and assistant general manager, concerning the long trip for Western students going to the Icehouse, located deep in the city's south end.
Concerning the entertainment aspect of the new facility, student appeal will definitely play a factor in luring in new acts.
"We are going to go after shows that we think will appeal to students. Once we do that, we will try to get the word out and try to work with the various organizations on campus," said John Labatt Centre general manager Brian Ohl.
"[The arena] is definitely more accessible to me because it's right around the corner," said third-year media, information and technoculture student Tim Mabee. "I haven't gone to a Knights game since I was a lot younger but I will definitely go now."