Northlands’ Vision 2020 plan creates new signature athletic and entertainment spaces for Edmontonians
EDMONTON, AB – Today, alongside Mayor Don Iveson, Northlands President & CEO Tim Reid unveiled Northlands Vision 2020, a plan for the immediate future of the 160-acre Northlands campus.
“Northlands’ realities have changed and we needed to find new ways to serve our community, as we have for over 137 years,” continued Reid. “We listened closely to what our city needed and
what we could realistically provide – Vision 2020 is the result.”
Vision 2020 is an innovative, tangible plan that satisfies the athletic and entertainment needs of Edmontonians. It takes advantage of buildings already in place and relies on Northlands’ proven capacity
as one of the city’s premier events and athletics hosts. The transformation has three cornerstone projects:
- Renovation of Rexall Place into the Northlands Ice Coliseum, an athletic complex with seven sheets of ice across two levels, with the ability to be converted to host other indoor sports such as volleyball,
lacrosse, curling and indoor soccer. - The conversion of the current Northlands Park Racetrack & Casino into an Urban Festival Site – a multi-use public park with the ability to host large-scale festivals and outdoor concerts of 30,000 to 140,000 people.
- Renovation of Hall D into a high-quality 5,000 seat venue for professional lacrosse, rodeo events, minor hockey tournament championships and mid-size concerts that need a venue of this size.
“I congratulate Northlands on their bold new vision to repurpose their existing facilities,” said Mayor Iveson. “My Council colleagues and I are looking forward to hearing more details and listening to what
Edmontonians think of the Northlands proposal.”
The new spaces will compliment Northland’s large roster of traditional events and programming, such as K-Days, FarmFair International, its connection to agriculture and the many shows and conferences
that currently make their home at the Edmonton Expo Centre.
“Northlands belongs to everyone. Our next steps are to reach out to the community to see if we got this plan right, and to ask them to actively help us refine this vision,” said Reid. “This isn’t about us telling the
community what they get – this is about the community telling us what they want.”