‘The beginning of amazing things to come’

Centre 200 to receive upgrades ahead of World Women’s Curling Championship

SYDNEY — Cape Breton’s largest entertainment and sports venue will soon receive upgrades it desperately needs to continue to attract national and international events to Sydney.

Centre 200 will receive $850,000 in a non-repayable contribution through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency for improvements to the 36-year-old George Street facility.

The funding was announced by Sydney-Victoria MP Jaime Battiste on behalf of Ginette Petitpas, minister responsible for ACOA, during a press conference at Centre 200 on Wednesday afternoon.

The investment will help the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, which owns Centre 200, purchase and install a new video scoreboard and clock, as well as upgrade the sound system and video equipment in preparation to host the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championship in March.

Signs will also be replaced with customizable LED video signs, creating more sponsorship opportunities.

Cape Breton’s largest entertainment venue will receive upgrades thanks to $850,000 in funding through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Most of the work is expected to be completed by the end of the year in time for the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championships in Sydney in March.

Paul MacDonald, manager of facilities for the CBRM, which includes Centre 200, said the venue has been working on project with various levels of government in recent years.

“It will make a difference for those who are attending events and those we’re trying to attract, for sure,” said MacDonald.

“It’s a setting point for through phase one of what will be a of multi-phase project. As long 69, as we can get continued supfact port from all levels of governbuilt ment, we’ll be able to do this.” on

Construction of Centre 200

began in 1985 and the venue opened its doors in 1987 to celebrate Sydney’s bicentennial.

Over the years, the venue has hosted various events from hockey, curling and concerts and was the home venue not only to the Cape Breton Eagles but also the Cape Breton Oilers and Cape Breton Pepsi Islanders as well as professional basketball’s Cape Breton Breakers and Cape Breton Highlanders.

The most recent big event held at the venue was the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s curling championship in February 2019. The venue was also used as a second location for the 2003 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship and played host to the 2014 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.

Earlier this month, Eagles majority owner Irwin Simon told the Cape Breton Post the team was told not to bid for the 2025 Memorial Cup by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League due to the current condition of Centre 200.

MacDonald said the municipality has talked with event

organizers and the QMJHL.

“I appreciate that they are going to come in and give us some help trying to recognize areas that will eventually allow us to do things that we want to do, and this is the starting point,” he said.

“It’s a great visual when you see a new video board and new LED signage and improvements to the sound system. I think everybody who at least attends hockey games and other events have had concerns about this and this money will allow us to fix that.”

MacDonald anticipates the video scoreboard to be bigger than what the facility currently has in place.

“I’m hoping that it can be sourced fairly easily and everybody I talk to says it is, but it’s the timeframe to put it up,” said MacDonald. “We have to find time during the season and we may have to do that if the hockey club is out for a two or three week period.”

CBRM Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill said the investment was “the beginning of amazing things to come for Centre 200.”

“You’re going to see an immense difference with this investment,” she said.

“There was a game where I had to drop the puck for the Eagles and one of the Eagles staffers said, 'come here mayor and look at the scoreboard.' We all know the spot that we’re talking about, the one square that really didn’t fit the puzzle.

“These are things that people don’t forget and when we invest in our space, we’re going to be bringing more people and the eyes are going to be on us for only the best reasons.”

McDougall-Merrill acknowledged the importance of Centre 200 to the municipality.

“We said very clearly that this building is a priority to us because we knew that we had a plan and faith that partners would come to the table and invest in this building,” said McDougall-Merrill. “It’s a wonderful thing when partners recognize priorities and invest in community.”

MacDonald hopes most of the work can be completed sooner rather than later. He said request for proposal documents will soon be released.

“Ultimately, I would like to see it done by the end of 2023, at least have the video and all of that stuff in place,” said MacDonald. “The sound system may be a little bit longer because it’s a big job – that can take place while we’re in operation.”

While more upgrades are needed to the venue, MacDonald said the municipality will lay out a plan and be ready for when funding becomes available.

“Instead of reacting to the funding, we’re going to have a plan in place and if the funding comes along we can fit it into this,” he said.

“It’s going to be a couple of years and we realize that and that’s the reality of it all. We’re going to be busy over the next little while and then we’ll see where it takes us and see what other events we can bring to this building.”

Upcoming events at Centre 200 include The Great Benjamins Circus on July 4, while CaperCon is set for Sept. 15-17. Concert-wise, country music star Kip Moore will play at the event on Oct. 11 and rock band The Glorious Sons are set to perform on Dec. 7. Tickets for those events are now on sale.