City of Brantford Council approved plans for the $152-million Sports and Entertainment Centre (SEC) during a special City Council meeting on Thursday, December 4, 2025.
When the City first signed its original contract with the Brantford Bulldogs back in 2023, part of the agreement was to explore building a new facility large enough to support an Ontario Hockey League (OHL) team and its fans.
The SEC is set to be a 5,235 fixed-seat venue that will be built beside the existing TD Civic Centre on Market Street South.
The facility will not only host its anchor tenant, the Brantford Bulldogs, but various sporting events, concerts, family shows, trade shows and conferences, and other local, regional, provincial, national and international events. According to Dathe Wong, lead architect with Stantec, the centre will be able to hold up to 7,000 for concert-style events.
The current conceptual design for the SEC comprises four levels. The main level will contain the event floor, Bulldogs team spaces, back of house space, visitor team space, green room and storage. The concourse level on the second floor will provide most facility users with seat access as well as access to a range of amenities such as a lounge, food and beverage services, team store and restrooms. The suite level on the third floor will contain private suites, some additional premium seats, and areas for media and press. The fourth and final level will contain mechanical mechanical systems and a catwalk to access an overhead rigging grid.
In regards to parking, following the completion of the SEC, there will be 1,647 parking spaces available within the immediate vicinity of the facility including on the site itself [about 360 spots], at Earl Haig Family Fun Park, at the Icomm Drive Parkade and at the Brantford Farmer’s Market.
“This would include recovery of some parking spots currently under lease to the Casino which are currently underutilized by the Casino,” read the report. “… Notwithstanding this, there are in addition another 595 public parking spots within an estimated 15-minute walk to the SEC site in the broader downtown precinct.”
Parking for 57 bicycles will be available on the completed project site with the opportunity to introduce additional bike parking if there is demand.
With approval now in place, construction is set to begin in 2026, and Michael Bradley, the City’s CAO, said the idea is to have it completed by 2028 and in time for the Brantford Bulldogs to play in September.
“We project this to be a build that would complete in early 2028, which is an aggressive timeline, but one we believe we can achieve,” said Bradley. “Our target is to have the Bulldogs playing their home opener in September of 2028 in the SEC.”
While the original estimated budget to build the facility was $140-million, and Council adopted a by-law in October 2024 to authorize the use of up to $140-million of debentures towards this project, the cost has since gone up by $12-million.
“Construction of the base project is estimated at $145-million which includes a $5-million contingency allowance,” read the report. “Items which were not considered in the initial project scope and consistent with the KKR cost analysis, result in a further $6.8-million in costs.”
According to Bradley’s report, there are several reasons why the price went up, including the dramatic increase in construction costs since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Initial cost estimates made for the SEC were based on historic averages of projects constructed in Canada since the 1990’s, with an estimated project cost of $140-million being set as the initial project budget,” the report states. “Post COVID-19 construction has seen dramatic increases in construction costs, and more recently the City of Sudbury commenced a 5,800 seat sports and entertainment facility in Sudbury with an overall project budget, based on an architectural assessment, of $200-million.”
Moving the centre’s planned location on the property also bumped the price up by $3.3-million in landscaping and parking costs. While initial designs showed that the SEC would be located immediately south of the Civic Centre, the new design has it located towards the south-east quadrant of the site.
“As design work on the SEC progressed, the limited space between the flood-control dike and the Civic Centre resulted in the building moving towards the south-east quadrant of the site and created an obvious opportunity to create the civic plaza to frame both the SEC entry and the Civic Centre entry,” read the report.
The remaining portion of the $6.8-million increase listed includes: upgrades to the local stormwater system which are estimated to cost $1.1-million; the removal and remediation of fill from former heavy industrial uses and demolition remains at an estimated cost of $1.2-million, and; the addition of a LED ribbon surrounding the seating bowl at an estimated cost of $1.1-million.
As far as financing the construction of the building, $140-million of it will be paid for through a 30-year municipal debenture “with the balance paid from funds held in the SEC reserve.”
The reserve will accumulate funds generated from:
- Proceeds from the sale of the SEC’s naming rights, sponsorships, and fundraising;
- Proceeds from the sale of City owned properties in the downtown area and net incremental tax increases resulting from new development within the area;
- Contributions from prospective venue operating partners;
- Utilizing the City’s portion of the City’s Municipal Accommodations Tax (MAT) revenues;
- Redirecting the City’s previous commitment to the Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) mid-size performance theatre,
- Incremental property taxes, net of community improvement plan tax increment grants, from development in the lower downtown precinct; and,
- Allocation of proceeds from the sale of City owned lands north of Powerline Road in the area that was transferred from the County of Brant to the City in 2017.
“A detailed financial plan shows the inflows into the SEC reserve being adequate to pay for the project cost and to service the annual repayment of the municipal debenture for the entire financing life of the project,” read Bradley’s report. “Thus, the SEC would not require any contribution from existing taxpayers.”
During the meeting, Council had the opportunity to hear from several delegations, including Brantford Bulldogs representatives and members of the Hyman family who own the team.
“…I just want to say thank you all for taking the time to review the new arena proposal, and I just want to let you know how much it means to all of us to be able to be in Brantford,” said Zach Hyman, president and governor of the Brantford Bulldogs, in a video addressed to Council. “It’s an incredible city and everywhere I go on the road, I get to meet different people who say that they know the Bulldogs or they’re from Brantford, and they’re so happy with the team being there. So from me to you guys, I wanted to say thank you again. The Bulldogs mean so much to me and my family, the Bulldogs mean so much to the City of Brantford, and we’re so excited to be there forever.”
Councillors later had the opportunity to express their support for the project and ask various questions from staff. Many said they were looking forward to seeing how the future SEC will improve the area and what it will do for the city as far as boosting the economy, home town pride, and development.
Mayor Kevin Davis said that when it comes to the need for a new sports and entertainment centre, the current TD Civic Centre just isn’t cutting it.
“It served a role, but the reality is that the way it’s laid out, you’re excluding probably 20 to 25 per cent of the population,” he said. “Anyone who has a walker, anyone who uses a cane, anyone who can’t walk very well or doesn’t have a great sense of balance, or who has to use a wheelchair, the Civic Centre is not friendly to you.”
The current facility has no elevators or escalators, lacks railings down steep stairs getting into the arena, doesn’t have enough washroom facilities or big enough seats, and only has about ten to 15 accessible spots to watch the game from, he said.
“So what are we going to get in this new facility? …We’re going to have something that will allow all of the residents in our community to fully participate in all events whether it’s hockey, a trade show, whatever it is. The seats will be four to five inches wider. …All of the stairs into the bowl will all have railings, there’ll be three elevators, there’ll be at least one escalator,” said Davis. “There will be, instead of 10 to 15 areas for wheelchairs where someone can’t even see onto the ice, they’re now going to be up and there’s going to be anywhere from 50 to 150 spaces for wheelchairs. …The washrooms will be, in some cases, almost triple the capacity of what we have right now, and for males, about double. There’ll also be the gender neutral washrooms that are required in a modern facility.”
Councillor Linda Hunt, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, said she was likely one of the only members of Council who had not been to a Brantford Bulldogs game, citing issues with the TD Civic Centre’s lack of accessibility features.
“I am probably one of the only members of council that has not seen a Bulldogs game because I am in a wheelchair and would have to sit at ice level looking and I’m not tall enough to look over the boards,” said Hunt. “So for that reason, I applaud the design team for considering the fact that this needs to be a state of the art facility, but also a state of the art accessible facility. …So, I will be supporting the facility and as I said, I look very forward to being able to participate, not only in hockey games, but in anything else that we’re able to host there.”
Councillor Richard Carpenter later said when he first came into the meeting, he had several concerns in regards to the financing of the SEC, but said he was pleased to see the plan was better than what was originally pitched,
“I’m happy to see that CAO has changed the pattern of the financing. I was very concerned with the financing that said all the tax revenue would come from new development,” he said. “As we’ve seen, every street here in Brantford has three, four, five or even six houses up for sale, condos are not selling and builders are not building them because we’ve got a downturn in the market and we don’t know what’s coming from the United States. So I’m glad you stretched that out over the longer term period. It may even need to be longer than that, if those numbers don’t flesh out.”
Carpenter then asked where the finances would come from if expected development didn’t happen and Bradley said that was a tough question to answer.
“We’d really have to deal with it at the time, but what I would say is there would be many options available to the Council; there would be asset sales as the City still has a strong asset base so we could look at another sale. The lands north of Powerline will probably yield more than we have in the financing plan, so those funds would be available unless they were determined for something else,” said Bradley. “Lacking that, future Councils could make other decisions; they could refinance the project and stretch the financing life out of it, some of it could move into the existing tax levy–depending on the level of growth that was happening. So the Council would have many options and we don’t just have to default to the idea that it would flow to the existing taxpayer there, there would be many options.”
Later, just before the vote, Davis said that there were other assets they could utilize if needed.
“Brian Hutchings [Brantford’s former CAO] and I, through hundreds of hours, negotiated a merger of our Hydro LDC. We were small, [Brantford Power Inc.] with some risk of being taken over and not being able to meet the needs of a modern utility. We fought hard to merge it with Energy+, and I’ve got to tell you, we did that because we could see that it would create a potential windfall for our community and be able to be there to help fund hospitals and projects like this,” he explained. “That had a value of $110-million when we negotiated the merger, the LDC industry is expanding radically, and the government’s probably going to be encouraging municipalities to dispose of their utilities. The value, I suspect, is well north of $200-million and that is a huge asset that our community has, that’s there as sort of a safeguard in case all of our predictions and all of our estimates, what’s going to happen don’t work out. …I don’t think we’re going to need it. I think this is a reasonable plan.”
Councillor Michael Sullivan said while he was initially concerned about the $152-million price tag, he was reminded of the saying, “if you build it, and they will come.”
“We have been stagnant with our downtown for decades and it’s not gotten any better. Without taking any form of risk, our downtown is never going to see life again. It’s going to continue on life support. However, if we look at some of our surrounding neighbours, they’ve realized that in order to make a downtown thrive, people need to live there. Well, there’s got to be a reason to live there other than a university,” he said. “If we’re going to go into this venture into sports and entertainment and making downtown a place where people can come and enjoy as a family, then people are going to want to live there and it’s going to spark development. We’re going to see more things added to our downtown. …So I will be supporting this, and I know there’s a risk factor, but in everything in life, there’s a risk. If there’s no risk, then it’s not worth going for it.”
Councillor Brian Van Tilborg, who said he was overall looking forward to seeing what the new facility could do for the community, stressed that he was still having a hard time wrapping his head around the new budget of $152-million when he had just barely gotten comfortable with the original $140-million that was estimated.
Keeping that in mind, he asked that the clauses in the item be separated for the vote. The clauses were later carried unanimously, with the exception of the $152-million budget approval, which Van Tilborg opposed.
It was also noted that following the approval and the signing of the by-law, the Hyman’s would officially sign the Bulldog’s 15-year lease agreement with the City of Brantford.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
