Toronto Ontario Place | ?m | ?s | Infrastructure ON

Sad, unless they have plans to have shovels in the ground by the years end..
Gee, basically the provincial government is saying it is losing money and cant afford to keep it open.

Parts of Ontario Place to be closed by province
Cinesphere, water park, amusement rides will be shuttered
The provincial government is taking steps to cut ongoing losses at Ontario Place, while appointing a new board that will help determine the future of the Toronto amusement park
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/02/01/toronto-ontario-place-future.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's sad but obviously nobody is going there. Why keep it open if it's draining money?? It is a shame though.
 
I suppose the other question is - now that most of the attractions are going to be close, what would happen to public access to the park in the meantime?

AoD
 
Tewder said:
It's sad but obviously nobody is going there. Why keep it open if it's draining money?? It is a shame though.
Click to expand...

If the Government hadn't have let it get run down people would have kept going. There could have been great licensed restaurants on the water, put some thing interesting in the pavilions. Make it a tivoli. Now I bet it'll somehow be Condos
 
GrinTO said:
If the Government hadn't have let it get run down people would have kept going. There could have been great licensed restaurants on the water, put some thing interesting in the pavilions. Make it a tivoli. Now I bet it'll somehow be Condos
Click to expand...

Uhg... hopefully not!

I agree though, with better foresight this could have been a great destination. Now it'll be defunct for several years at least.
 
5 freakin years to figure things out!?!? They can build an entire Disney park in half the time.

> Mr. Duncan says the water park, amusement rides and the Cinesphere will be closed until 2017 while a panel looks at various ways to make Ontario Place a “must-visit†destination for tourists.
 
I've always felt that after the hey-day of its early years , once the inital enthusiasm wore off, that the actual (isolated) location and accessibility was part of the problem. Sure, during the couple weeks that the CNE was open you had ready made crowds available to siphon off but other than that it just seems like an out of the way location escpecially if the attractions were not continually being refreshed. Its an interesting piece of our history, especailly for those of us who grew up in the 70's. It will be a shame to see it sitting unused for any lengthy period but even more of a shame to see it dismantled. Hopefully this panel bring it back to life. John Tory is an interesting choice to be in charge... a very capable guy who is generally well liked, though he doesnt strike me as somone who is any sort of an expert at "having fun". We'll see...
 
DSC said:
Mr. Duncan says the water park, amusement rides and the Cinesphere will be closed until 2017 while a panel looks at various ways to make Ontario Place a "must-visit" destination for tourists.
Click to expand...

If there ever was a candidate for preservation on historical grounds, the Cinesphere is it. It is the home of the first-ever IMAX theatre in the world, surely that has to count for something.

I support the preservation of the few remaining silo complexes on the east and west ends of the central harbour, as they are some of the last remnants of Toronto's industrial past, but on a world-wide basis they are insignificant, since there are huge numbers of similar structures around the world. There is only one "World's First IMAX Theatre", though, and it is right here in Toronto. That puts it into a different class altogether, in my opinion, and I would consider it a tragedy for the history of cinema if it were to be demolished.
 
Mongo said:
If there ever was a candidate for preservation on historical grounds, the Cinesphere is it. It is the home of the first-ever IMAX theatre in the world, surely that has to count for something.

I support the preservation of the few remaining silo complexes on the east and west ends of the central harbour, as they are some of the last remnants of Toronto's industrial past, but on a world-wide basis they are insignificant, since there are huge numbers of similar structures around the world. There is only one "World's First IMAX Theatre", though, and it is right here in Toronto. That puts it into a different class altogether, in my opinion, and I would consider it a tragedy for the history of cinema if it were to be demolished.
Click to expand...

Privatize the thing. Why does it make sense for the Ontario government to run an amusement park?
 
Mongo said:
If there ever was a candidate for preservation on historical grounds, the Cinesphere is it. It is the home of the first-ever IMAX theatre in the world, surely that has to count for something. (...) I would consider it a tragedy for the history of cinema if it were to be demolished.
Click to expand...
Hey, I love the home boys too, but I think that is vastly overstating the importance of IMAX in the history of cinema. I think that, when all is said and done, IMAX will be seen to be somewhat like VistaVision -- cool technology, but really a niche.
 
Presumably (trying to be optimistic here) the 5 year closure includes the construction time for whatever plan is developed. If Ontario Place is really losing $20 million per year (which I find staggering) there is no rationale for keeping it open. At 300,000 visits per year, that equates to a subsidy of $66 per visitor over an above a fairly high entrance price for what you get. The numbers do seem a bit self serving (I would estimate that close to 300,000 people go to the amphitheatre each year alone, and I seem to recall they get free admission to the park) but if there's $20 million per year that can get put into redevelopment instead of keeping a dying amusement park open then that makes sense to me.

That said, the suggestion that this redevelopment is needed so that the province can make money off of Ontario Place, which is needed because of the province's financial shape, makes me very skeptical that the province would invest the serious capital required to make this a top notch attraction (whatever shape that may take). The return on investment would only be long-term and all indications are the the government is concerned about the short term. They are not presenting this as a legacy project but as a revenue project. This leaves one or two things to happen: either it ends up being cheap and crappy, or they partner with private developers to fund the capital costs. This could work if done properly, but such things are rarely done properly.
 
andrewpmk:

Certainly the aspects that are more business-like in nature should be privatized (to both for and non-profits), however the public space component is pretty much an integral portion of the waterfront and should remain in public hands. Maybe some kind of mixed model?

AoD
 
What a weaselly announcement today.

The reality is that Ontario Place is closed permanently as of today but nobody wants to admit it. That 2017 date was arbitrarily pulled out of someone's ass to gloss over the truth. I predict the site will remain shuttered and fallow for years (a la Distillery or Brickworks) until the government just throws up its hands and sells it holus-bolus.
 
Why weren't the problems Ontario Place was having reviewed comprehensively five or ten years earlier, so that plans to revitalize it could have been drawn up before we reached this crisis stage?
It's sad and alarming that the government has shut it down. As mentioned above, I worry that it means it will be harder to revitalize and start up again. I doubt there's a way to guarantee the revitalization plans - and funding - are thoroughly solid, and I could see the place being a victim of politics until it is put up for sale.
Let's hope that it doesn't happen that way. Even so, it's not good knowing it will just be sitting there for a few years.
I don't understand why they won't be keeping the Cinesphere open. I agree that it's historical to Canada, and iconic. It had better be preserved, regardless of what goes down.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top