| Subject: Mayor Restaino to persue minor league hockey for NF |
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Purp 1
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Date Posted: Saturday, January 25, 11:03:27am
Author Host/IP: syn-074-070-140-050.res.spectrum.com/74.70.140.50
Niagara Falls may not have an arena for a team yet but Mayor Robert Restaino is taking a shot at luring an Ontario Hockey League franchise to the city just the same.
Restaino confirmed in his weekly YouTube address on Friday that he had a meeting last week in Toronto with OHL Commissioner Bryan Crawford where they discussed the possibility of Niagara Falls, NY, securing the rights to one of three available franchises under what league officials described in November as an “aggressive” expansion plan.
The OHL is one of three junior ice hockey leagues in the Canadian Hockey League. It features players between the ages of 16 and 20. The league currently has 20 teams, including 17 in Ontario and three in the United States — two in Michigan and one in Pennsylvania.
The meeting is part of Restaino’s ongoing pursuit of the development of Centennial Park, a $165 million events campus that the administration says would include a 6,000- to 7,000-seat arena for sporting and entertainment events, a smaller arena for sporting and entertainment events and a splash pad that could be converted into an ice-skating rink during winter months.
In his weekly address earlier this month, Restaino said he had lunch with Crawford last week and that the league’s commissioner is “fully aware of what the city is trying to accomplish with the events center.” He also noted that the league has made an “aggressive commitment” to expand.
“In our conversation, they are very excited about trying to bring a franchise here to the City of Niagara Falls,” Restaino said.
Sportsnet.ca in Canada reported in November that the league’s board agreed to adopt a “mandate” to pursue “aggressive expansion” by four teams. Multiple media outlets in Canada have reported that league officials want at least one of those teams to be located in Toronto, with the remaining three franchise destinations still undecided.
In a statement issued Friday, Crawford said the OHL continues to explore opportunities for expansion, including “avenues to broaden the league’s footprint in the United States.”
“With the appropriate facility in place, Niagara Falls, New York, would offer an intriguing center for the OHL both in terms of community support and geographical proximity,” Crawford said. “We look forward to better understanding what kind of opportunities there might be for the OHL in the region.”
To accommodate an OHL franchise, the city needs to build an arena where the team could play.
Restaino’s administration has been successful in convincing the courts to support its contention that the city has a legal right to use its power of eminent domain to forcibly acquire 10 acres of land off John B. Daly Boulevard for the purposes of developing Centennial Park.
The administration is now in the process of advancing a new legal argument that suggests the city actually owns 5 of the 10 acres. The argument is based on what Restaino says was NFR’s failure, under former Mayor Irene Elia’s administration, to properly petition the state for the right to acquire the acres, which, at the time, served as 10th Street Park. The city contends that NFR failed to properly obtain state approval to complete the acquisition of the public parkland. The city’s attorneys main the step is required by law.
A challenge of the city’s position appears likely as NFR’s representatives have noted that, in its own legal filings tied to its eminent domain case, the city admitted that NFR “are the owners of the referenced parcel...”
The Niagara Gazette reported last year, based on project documents submitted for review to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2022, the project would require at least $122 million in state funds.
Restaino has described those numbers as “hypotheticals” while suggesting it was still too early in the process to give a precise dollar amount for the state’s potential share. Restaino has said he has received assurances from members of the Western New York delegation to the state legislature that they like the idea but urged the city to acquire land for the facility first.
Councilman Donta Myles opposes the Centennial Park development due to uncertainty about the final cost, source of funds and future management of the structure. He believes it’s a foolish vanity project that will ultimately cost taxpayers — both in the city and, if Restaino has his way, across the state — for little to no benefits and potentially at a high, long-term operational cost.
He said Restaino’s meeting with the OHL commissioner has zero impact on his opinion of the mayor’s Centennial Park idea.
“It still doesn’t validate the fact that he has not come up with a complete plan,” Myles said. “He still doesn’t know where the money is coming from for this project. It’s putting the cart before the horse. We don’t have (anything) built here. This is a pie-in-the-sky center. It’s an idea.”
City lawmakers agreed in April to hire the Florida-based consulting company Sports Facilities Advisory LLC to provide a “market analysis and feasibility study” for Centennial Park under an agreement that the company would be paid up to $140,000, plus a projected $5,000 to $6,000 in expenses.
Myles noted that the mayor has yet to publicly share any version — draft or final — of a feasibility study. He also expressed concern that city lawmakers still have not seen what he views as an important item — a document showing how much the appraiser hired by the city in 2022 believes NFR’s property is worth.
“There’s been no transparency,” he said. “There’s no feasibility study and, if one was done, there has been no appraisal (presented to the council).”
Niagara Falls Council Chairman Jim Perry, a supporter of the arena plan, described the mayor’s visit with representatives from the OHL as “promising.” He has said that he agrees with Restaino that Centennial Park could improve the appeal of the downtown area for residents and visitors alike.
“I’m now convinced more than ever that a convention center for this city would be good,” Perry said during an interview earlier this month on a local podcast. “We’re on the verge right now but, for the long-term economic growth for this city, I believe a convention center is where the future is.”
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