The Event Centre:
What Does It
Really Cost?

Built From City Documents

This analysis draws exclusively from publicly available documents — city press releases, council reports, third-party financial ratings, and published news coverage. It does not represent the views of any political candidate or campaign. It is offered as an independent summary of the publicly documented financial picture surrounding the Greater Sudbury Event Centre project.

Readers are encouraged to verify every figure cited here against the original sources listed in the sidebar. If errors are found, corrections are welcome — getting this right matters more than being right.

That may be true. But residents also deserve to know the full price tag — not just the construction line item. The purpose of this article is to lay out that complete picture, clearly and without political framing, so that every resident of Greater Sudbury can assess for themselves whether this investment reflects the priorities of their city at this moment in time.

The Decision to Build

On April 16, 2024, all 13 members of Greater Sudbury city council voted unanimously to proceed with a new downtown Event Centre to replace the 74-year-old Sudbury Community Arena. The approved facility will seat up to 5,800 for hockey, 6,200 for basketball, and 7,200 for concerts. It is designed by Toronto-based Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects, built by PCL Construction, and is expected to open in Fall 2028.

The decision ended a decade-long debate. Previous iterations — including the Kingsway Entertainment District, which reached $215 million before being cancelled in 2022 — had consumed years of public debate and millions in planning costs. When the downtown new build was approved, council framed it as a necessary and overdue investment in the city's future.

The construction budget approved by council is $200 million. That figure is accurate. It is also, as this analysis documents, only one component of the total cost to taxpayers over the life of this project.

The State of the Sudbury Community Arena

Built in 1951 at a cost of $700,000, the Sudbury Community Arena has served this community for 75 years. It seats 4,640 people, with a standing capacity of 5,100. Multiple condition assessments have examined the building in recent years. Their findings have been consistent.

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  Structural Condition: Fair — and Declining A2S Consulting Engineers completed a structural assessment in October 2023. They rated the building's overall condition as "fair" with a Facility Condition Index of 12.8 per cent. Without additional investment, the building was projected to reach "poor" condition by 2025 and "very poor" by 2030.
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  Snow Load Restrictions The building is operating under snow load restrictions on its north and south roof sections, which are structurally under-designed to accommodate snow accumulation. The interim solution is monitoring to prevent accumulation above 16 inches.
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  Annual Maintenance Required: ~$974,000 To maintain the arena in "fair" condition — not to improve it — the city's own reports estimated an annual average investment of $973,674 would be required over 10 years. City staff clarified this amount "is required just to maintain the Sudbury Community Arena in fair condition."
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  Modern Event Limitations The building's roof structure does not provide adequate height for modern touring productions and rigging requirements, limiting the events and acts Greater Sudbury can attract. Hockey Canada specifies a minimum of approximately 7,000 seats for national championship events — a threshold the existing building cannot meet.
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  10-Year Capital Needs: $15.6 Million Status quo maintenance without renovation — addressing issues as they arise — was projected to require $15.6 million in capital investment over 10 years.

The condition of the existing building is real and documented. These facts were part of the case the city made for the new build — and they are legitimate considerations.

What Renovation Would Have Cost

Prior to the April 2024 decision, city staff were directed to investigate both a renovation of the existing arena and a new build. Third-party experts A2S Consulting Engineers and BBB Architects assessed both options. Renovation cost estimates, inflated to 2023 dollars, ranged from $74 million to $150 million depending on scope. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated a full modernization at approximately $128.6 million — not including a required parking structure.

The renovation option carried important limitations that the city documented honestly. A renovation would extend the building's useful life by only 20 to 25 years, meaning full replacement would again be required by approximately 2049. Structural ceiling clearance limitations would remain. And the city's own consultant noted that a renovated downtown facility generates less private sector confidence for ancillary development than a new build.

The city's case for the new build was ultimately based on capability, lifespan, and the potential to catalyse broader South District development. Those are legitimate arguments. What is documented below is the cost side of that equation — which residents did not see in full before the April 2024 vote.

What the $200M Figure Does Not Include

The $200 million construction budget is the figure the city has consistently cited. It is accurate as a description of the approved construction cost. A full accounting of the taxpayer investment, however, requires additional components — all documented in city records.

Total Event Centre Debt Committed

The city borrowed $90 million in 2020 at 2.416 per cent interest — one of the lowest rates secured by any Canadian municipality at the time — for the then-Kingsway Entertainment District. When that project was cancelled, those funds were redirected to the current downtown project. Of that $90 million, approximately $25 million has already been spent: $20.42 million on downtown property purchases and demolitions, and $4.38 million on the now-cancelled Kingsway project.

In April 2024, council approved an additional $135 million in new borrowing. Combined, total event centre debt stands at $225 million, confirmed by Sudbury.com in May 2025.

Interest on Debt Over 30 Years

For the new $135 million borrowing, the city's own assumption is a 4 per cent interest rate over a 30-year repayment term. At that rate, total interest on the new debt over 30 years is approximately $97 million. Interest on the earlier $90 million at 2.416 per cent over 30 years totals approximately $34 million. Combined: approximately $131 million in interest — documented in city financial planning.

Annual Operating Costs

Municipally owned event centres of this scale do not typically operate at a profit. The city's own KPMG Long-Term Financial Plan projected annual debt servicing costs for the event centre at $4.4 million to $5.5 million per year. Over 30 years, debt servicing alone totals $132 million to $165 million by the city's own documented figures. No public operating pro forma — projecting revenues, expenses, and annual net taxpayer subsidy — has been released for this facility.

Note: The $90M prior debt and $25M in land costs apply equally to both the renovation and new build scenarios and are excluded from comparison totals to avoid double-counting. New build figures in the right column are drawn from city council-approved budgets, CBC reporting, and the city's own KPMG Long-Term Financial Plan — all cited above. Renovation figures in the left column are estimates based on city staff reports and PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis; the renovation option was not proceeded with and no binding cost was ever established. Both columns are clearly identified throughout.

Renovate vs. New Build: The Numbers Side by Side

The following table compares the two options considered by council across all documented and estimated cost components over a 30-year period from 2024 to 2054. This is the comparison that was never formally published for residents before the April 2024 vote.

The city's case for the new build rested on lifespan, capability, and the potential to attract private investment. These are legitimate considerations. What is harder to justify is the absence of a published 30-year cost comparison before the vote was taken. Residents were told what the building would cost to construct. They were not told what it would cost to own.

Greater Sudbury's Debt — Where It Stands

The Event Centre project does not exist in a vacuum. It was approved at a moment when the city's debt position was already drawing independent scrutiny.

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  Per-Capita Debt: More Than Double the Ontario Average Greater Sudbury's per-capita debt stood at $1,841 as of 2023 — more than double the Ontario municipal average of $913, according to Fraser Institute analysis of BMA Municipal Study data.
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  Total Debt: Highest in City History Total municipal debt is projected to peak at approximately $587 million to $604 million — the highest level in the city's history. It has grown 1,696 per cent in a single decade, from $18.98 million in 2014 to $341 million in 2024.
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  Projected Among Highest Per-Capita Debt in Ontario The Fraser Institute projects per-person municipal debt reaching approximately $3,333 by 2027, which would place Greater Sudbury among the highest per-capita municipal debts in Ontario. Municipal debt per household was projected to peak in 2026 at $8,104.
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  S&P Global Flagged the Risk S&P Global Ratings, which reaffirmed the city's AA+ credit rating in September 2024, noted a debt burden peaking at approximately 67 per cent of revenues by 2026 and flagged the key downgrade risk as "increasing capital needs resulting in after-capital deficits greater than 10 per cent of total revenues on a sustained basis."

S&P maintained the AA+ rating on the basis of the city's strong economy, robust liquidity, and conservative financial management policies. The rating reflects confidence in the city's ability to service its debt — not a judgment that the level of debt is without risk.

The Question of Independent Oversight

Alongside the financial commitments of the Event Centre project, a significant change in municipal governance took place at the end of 2025.

The City of Greater Sudbury's Office of the Auditor General was closed effective December 31, 2025. The decision was made by council in a closed session during December 2025 budget deliberations. No public report was written to inform the decision. The closure was announced in a city media release in January 2026.

The Auditor General's office was responsible for independent assessment of whether public money was being spent efficiently. It conducted six audits annually, managed the Wrongdoing Hotline, and oversaw 10 investigations per year. At the time of closure, planned 2026 audits included a review of the city's long-term financial plan — directly relevant to the Event Centre debt commitments.

The stated rationale for closure was a saving of approximately $500,000 per year. The net saving — after accounting for cost avoidances the office identified annually — was not calculated or published by city officials prior to the decision.

The city is committed to a half-billion dollars or more in event centre-related spending. It no longer has an independent officer whose job is to ask whether that money is being spent efficiently.

What Residents Still Don't Know

As of the publication of this article, the following information has not been made publicly available by the City of Greater Sudbury.