Nearly two-thirds of Ottawa voters disapprove of city council’s plan to redevelop Lansdowne Park, a new poll suggests.
The Liaison Strategies survey, commissioned by the Ottawa Compass and iPolitics, shows 61 per cent of respondents do not support council’s plan to rebuild the north stands of the city’s main football stadium and build a new arena on the grounds of Lansdowne Park.
Thirty-one per cent support the move, while seven per cent were unsure.
Opposition is strongest among 35-49 year olds (64 per cent disapprove), voters in Ottawa’s south (65) and women (63). Support is fairly uniform amongst all groups, though younger voters (35 per cent approve) and east residents (37) are more likely to back the plan.
READ MORE: Ottawa council approves $419-million Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment after contentious debate
Council narrowly approved the $419 million Lansdowne 2.0 redevelopment in a vote last November, paving the way for the construction of the new facilities, as well as a parking garage.
As part of the redevelopment plan, the city is selling air rights for the site to developers, and it’s expected that new towers will add 800 housing units.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe touted the plan as a great deal for taxpayers because the city would only have to pay 31 per cent of the construction costs and none of the operation expenses.
He said failing to move forward with the redevelopment would cost the city millions in investment and raise the bill for the inevitable future repairs to the facilities.
“We can hold back we can delay further, or we can move forward. And I want to keep Ottawa moving forward,” Sutcliffe said last fall.
For the automated phone poll — conducted between April 11-12 — Liaison Strategies based the results on response from 1,000 Ottawa voters. The data was matched with the city’s profile from the 2021 Census, with the results broken down by region in the city, gender, age and language.
The margin of error is reported as 3.09 percentage points, though is higher for sub-samples.
Lansdowne Park has hosted the city’s football and junior hockey teams for decades, as well as special events, including Ottawa’s now dormant annual exhibition.
But the site sat largely vacant and underused in the years before a significant renovation in 2014 that saw the replacement of the south-side stands for the football stadium, and addition of retail and dining facilities, as well as several condo and townhome buildings.
The Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), which owns the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks and the OHL’s Ottawa 67s — both Lansdowne tenants — was tasked with overseeing the initial transformation of the site, and would take the helm of the proposed renovation project.
OSEG acts as the operator of Lansdowne, and has reported losses in each of the past ten years, and has never made any payment to the city. Under the terms of the agreement, OSEG recoups any profits first before distributing them to the city.
Sutcliffe said the city has never had to absorb any losses because of its partnership with OSEG, and wouldn’t have to shoulder any operating costs for Lansdowne 2.0 either.
A recent review found the north-side stands had become functionally obsolete and needed significant repairs. It also found the decades-old arena located underneath the stands was reaching the end of its functional usefulness, and was energy inefficient.
Critics have questioned if the redevelopment plan is a massive public giveaway to OSEG, noting the city’s women’s pro hockey team — which isn’t owned by OSEG — has warned against plans for a smaller capacity arena.
It’s expected the new arena would sit around 6,600 people, but the Ottawa Charge regularly sells out the existing TD Place Arena, which has a capacity of over 9,000.
The Ottawa Compass and iPolitics have partnered with Liaison to provide exclusive polling data on the 2026 Ottawa municipal election.
