You can’t help but have a sense of deja vu about how City Council is handling the issue of building a new arena.

I know that Councilors cringe every time the issue of the stadium debacle is raised, but the comparisons between the stadium and arena debates are inevitable .

The most glaring similarity seems to be Council’s penchant for dismissing the input from potential private sector investors and from the anchor tenants of the facilities.

Instead, Councilors want the convention centre, the arena and concert hall clustered together in what they call an entertainment precinct, with the omni-present promise of huge economic spin off.

The fact is , an arena, or stadium, for that matter,  in Hamilton just doesn’t host enough events through the week to attract huge commercial growth.

Let’s be realistic; the existing arena has been in place for more than thirty years and the only ‘spin off’ is  a federal office building across the street.

For that matter, at Tim Horton Field, the only other development has been a high school and a senior’s centre .

We need to temper our expectations of an arena as a catalyst for an economic windfall .

After all, about forty years ago, that City Council decided to create an entertainment precinct by putting the convention centre the concert hall and the arena all in the same area downtown to attract new investment.

How did that work out ?

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