Red River Ex plans don’t worry Keystone

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/03/2012 (5190 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A $140 million development plan to build a 5,000-seat arena and 300,000 square feet of convention space at Winnipeg’s Red River Exhibition Park is not seen as a threat to Brandon’s Keystone Centre.

“Isn’t it interesting Winnipeg wants to be more like Brandon?” Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Cam Clark said.

The Brandon Sun attempted to reach Red River Exhibition CEO Garth Rogerson, but he did not respond to messages. However, in a CBC radio interview, he said the expansion is intended to allow Winnipeg to host heavy equipment and agricultural shows that bypass the provincial capital because of a lack of facilities.

“No matter what you do to the (Winnipeg) Convention Centre, you can’t have a heavy equipment show or an agriculture-based show,” Rogerson said to the CBC.

“You can’t have cows downtown, and yet those kinds of shows are extremely profitable for the city that brings it in.”

The proposed 5,000-seat arena and 300,000 square feet of convention space expansion to the Red River Exhibition’s 62,000 square feet of indoor space would bring it closer to the 540,000 square feet now available at the Keystone Centre.

The expansion news came as no surprise to Keystone Centre general manager Neil Thomson.

“I think all facilities look at different things and ways to grow their businesses and what they think opportunities are for their market, just like we do,” Thomson said.

“We are not really surprised by this and we don’t know what will happen at Red River and what their plan looks like. We have a summer fair. They have a summer fair. Because we serve Brandon and southwestern Manitoba, we think there is a good market for us here. We don’t see any issue with what they are looking for.”

Brandon city manager Scott Hildebrand questioned whether building a second facility for large agricultural shows made sense for the province.

The Keystone Centre receives funding from both provincial and municipal governments as well as the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, while the Red River Exhibition’s expansion plans are expected to be privately funded.

“Everyone that I’ve talked to in my short time in Brandon says that Brandon is the agricultural hub of Manitoba, and they are doing a good job (hosting agriculture shows),”  Hildebrand said. “I think the province recognizes that.”

Clark did not see the proposed Red River development as a threat to the Keystone Centre’s ability to get big shows, but rather as an enhancement that could allow the province to attract bigger shows it can’t host now.

“Winnipeg is somewhat hampered by its agreement with the MTS Centre and the new football stadium in that it can’t host some of those events,” Clark said. “We’re fortunate in this community and it is well established that we can do those shows. It’s a complementary thing rather than a direct threat.”

Clark said the annual Ag Days is one event where the Red River Ex development could be seen as a competitor, as there is a waiting list of exhibitors wanting to get into the show, currently hosted in Brandon.

“On the surface you can speculate all you want, that it will have some competitive factor to it,” Clark said. “I see this development as complementary as it identifies the province as a place to come to. If we can take shows out of Toronto and Calgary and bring them to Manitoba, it’s a positive.”

The Keystone Centre board recently received a preliminary and conceptual land use report that outlines potential development options for the 90 acres of land it operates on 18th Street.

That report, which has not been formally discussed or reviewed by Keystone Centre board members, outlines how it is possible to add a multi-use indoor field house that can be used for soccer, other recreational sports, convention space or as barns for horse shows.

The plan also shows where a harness racing track could be added, though the Keystone Centre board has not indicated an interest one way or the other in reintroducing horse racing to the facility.

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com