The National Post asserts that despite aligning his project with businesses tied to two of the National Hockey League's most influential owners, the Canadian entrepreneur trying to build a 20,000-seat arena in a suburb north of Toronto is steadfast in claiming the possibility of an NHL team is not a motivating factor behind his proposal. Graeme Roustan has received preliminary support for a $325-million arena in Markham, Ont., and recently announced a pair of corporate partnerships — one with a business tied to Jeremy Jacobs, who owns the Boston Bruins and chairs the NHL's board of governors; the other owned by Ed Snider, who owns the Philadelphia Flyers and has a seat on the NHL board's executive committee.
Jacobs and Snider are viewed among the hardliners in the NHL's two-week-old lockout of the players. Roustan, who recently stepped down from his role as chairman of Bauer Performance Sports Ltd., said the partnerships are partially a function of his experience dealing in the hockey world.
"If I was a concert promoter, all of my relationships most likely would be in the concert and event promotion business," he said. "I happen to have spent the last five or 10 years in the hockey world, so most of the people that I know are from that industry."
Jacobs is chairman and chief executive of Delaware North Companies, which bills itself as "one of the world's leading hospitality and food service companies," generating more than US$2.5-billion in revenue a year. Delaware North has been added in an unspecified capacity with the Markham arena project, known as the GTA Centre.
Snider is chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, and a subsidiary, Global Spectrum, has been enlisted as an adviser for planning the arena in Markham. If the building is approved by city council, Global Spectrum will manage and operate it.
Roustan, his construction partners and city leaders are scheduled to meet with Markham residents in the first of three information sessions next Thursday. Roustan is hoping to have a shovel in the ground by spring, and have the arena operational by the end of 2014.
He has been at pains to say the arena's viability does not depend on the arrival of an NHL franchise. He has repeated the notion it could survive on concerts and other events, serving as both an overflow and a separate option for acts eyeing the Air Canada Centre, which is home to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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