City mulling whether to rebuild or renovate Sudbury Arena

“Council added to the scope to include not only replacing Sudbury Arena, but also renovating the existing facility,” he said. “So given that change of direction, we felt it was important to go one step further and use the consultant to do a full cost analysis of bringing the old rink up to current OHL standards, versus building a brand new OHL facility … It's certainly worth looking into.”

While the current council has lame duck status – meaning they can't make major decisions until after the Oct. 27 election – Carre said the next mayor and council will have a good idea of what building a new rink versus renovating would involve.

“So we can go back to council and provide them with those two options,” he said. “And then – and only then – will we be asking council for further direction on the next steps.”

Building a new arena is estimated to cost between $40 million and $80 million, and the consultants will also look at building it using the same sort of public/private partnership being used to build the $63 million biosolids plant on Kelly Lake Road.