Demographics and hockey

[Emerald]

quote from "Boom Bust and Echo' by David Foot.

There is no excuse for a community to spend mOney on hockey rinks in the mid 90s that are likely to be empty in 2005, while neglecting to provide the parks and walking trails that an aging population needs. Canada can't afford mistakes like these: if we pay attention to demographics, we can avoid them pg 107

[notcherry]

David Foot did not take into account the huge increase in women and girls taking up hockey when he wrote "Boom, Bust, Echo".

[macphail]

The challenge in Kingston is our demographics: Slow growth (less than 1%) and an aging population will mean that the landscape of Kingston 10 - 20 years from now will be quite different.

If the idea is to develop arenas/LVEC/whatever based on current demographics or flawed stats (such as KEDCO's), then the process is not going to result in the type of venues Kingston should be trying to attract/have built.

Regardless, it isn't an LVEC or arena that is going to bring business and people to Kingston, nor will it raise the standard of living for people of Kingston. Kingston has real problems that must be addressed if we want to compete and attract talent to our city - an LVEC isn't going to do that on its own.

D.