Local music industry insiders applaud Lansdowne 2.0 concert venue

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Music tourism is “surging” and cities that invest in culture and live performance “are seeing major returns,” she said.

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And it’s not just the new artists that do perform in mid-sized arenas, but classic rock performers, too, Craig added, rhyming off artists like Elton John, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Carlos Santana and even comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who prefer smaller, more intimate sold-out venues.

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“Jerry won’t play those big arenas by himself; he doesn’t want to see empty seats,” Craig said. “It needs to be packed and close and intimate, and that’s exactly what I feel we need here in Ottawa.”

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On the first day of the Lansdowne 2.0 debate on Oct. 29, which lasted more than 10 hours, much of the attention focused on delegates from the Ottawa Charge and the Professional Women’s Hockey League, who told the committee they had been left out of conversations on the capacity for the new arena.

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Plans for 5,850 seats in the arena plus standing room, bringing capacity to 6,600 for hockey games, drew the ire of the PWHL, as capacity at the old Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena) is around 9,800.

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Craig related several anecdotes from his colourful history promoting concerts at the Civic Centre, including a Depeche Mode concert in June 1990 that was forced to cancel because asbestos was falling from the ceiling.

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Issues persisted “right up until a few years ago, where I’m doing some shows and we had 14 buckets placed around the arena floor because of the water leaks,” Craig said.

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“And, as much as I love the arena, it’s old, it’s tired, and with Lansdowne 1.0, I was the last to speak at council back in that day. Renovations were done, but it’s just not enough,” he said.

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The city has missed out on numerous concerts from high-profile artists in the meantime, Craig said, because agents and managers refuse to book the venue.

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“At least once every three months, I will hear a manager or an agent say to me, when I would suggest (TD Arena), they go, ‘Isn’t that the old Ottawa Civic Centre?’

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“And I say yes, and right away they’ll say, ‘We’re not playing that.’ This industry is very small. It’s the same crew and managers and agents over and over again, and they don’t forget things like that.”

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Ali Shafaee, vice-president of Live Nation Canada, said the entertainment giant “tends to skip over” Ottawa on its tour schedule due to the lack of a midsize venue.

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“Ottawa has made real progress over the past few years in building its live music scene, but to continue that momentum we need the right infrastructure,” Shafaee said.

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The city has a number of venues with capacity for up to 2,000 people, Shafaee said, citing the new Hard Rock theatre, the Bronson Centre, the NAC and the History Ottawa venue opening soon at the former Chapters store on Rideau Street.