A Facebook group has started a grassroots effort to persuade the City of Windsor to give a downtown landmark another "period".
The group Save T Barn has begun a petition drive to save the Windsor Arena site from the potential of facing the wrecking ball. The drive was started after the Windsor Express basketball team announced last week that the City had pulled out of a plan to turn the almost century-old site into a recreation and retail hub. The Express would have also had a permanent home there.
"Windsor Arena, affectionately known as The Barn, is a historic site and has been an iconic landmark in Windsor's downtown core for the past 97 years. It has fostered community spirit since it was constructed in 1924 and has hosted millions of fans and all types of events," read the petition as displayed on Change.org. "Please help us show City Council The Barn is important to the residents of Windsor and Essex County."
Organizer Rachel Kaczmarski told Blackburn News in an email that a redeveloped arena will benefit points of interest within a short walk.
"If the building was used as an arena again, not only would people attend sporting events and concerts but they would more than likely visit restaurants and bars downtown and even the casino," said Kaczmarski. "The Barn would be the starting point to revitalize downtown Windsor and boost the economy."
The building's future was put into doubt when Express owner and CEO Dartis Willis announced that the city was pulling out of the project. While Willis said the Express plans to carry on and has put out a call for sponsors and backers, Mayor Drew Dilkens told Blackburn News the idea just isn't feasible.
"I think the public will recognize there’s been great effort to find a practical reuse of this property for a number of years,” Dilkens said. “We’ve come to a point where we don’t have any viable proposals in front of us."
While the demolition of the arena is now a possibility, Save T Barn wants city councillors to consider making the property a protected historic landmark. The arena, whose street address is 572 McDougall, is already on the city's municipal heritage register.
As of Saturday morning, the petition had generated over 410 signatures.
Windsor Arena is one of the oldest surviving buildings that has been a venue for an NHL team, as the Detroit Cougars (later the Red Wings) played its first NHL season there while the Olympia Stadium in Detroit was being built. The arena was also the longtime home of the Windsor Spitfires before the WFCU Centre opened in 2008. The University of Windsor's hockey teams played home games there until 2013. The arena is older than Toronto's former Maple Leaf Gardens, which now houses a supermarket and the ice for Ryerson University's hockey teams.