If re-elected as mayor, Doug McCallum wants to build a 60,000-person stadium in Surrey

If re-elected with his Safe Surrey Coalition in October, incumbent Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum plans to build a multi-use stadium in the city that will seat 60,000 people.

The campaign commitment was revealed Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming two-rink Cloverdale Sport and Ice Complex.

“We will be bigger than Vancouver in four or five years so we’re going to build a sports stadium in the next few years,” he told Global News.

“We’re looking at two, three locations right now but we’ll let you know when we decide on one.”

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If constructed, the arena would have about the same seating capacity as BC Place, where the Vancouver Whitecaps and BC Lions play.

In the past seven years, the best regular home season average attendance at a BC Lions game was 21,290 in 2015. That number peaked in 1986 at 46,637.

BC Place was built in 1983 at a cost of about $126 million. Renovating its roof alone in 2011 cost $514 million.

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McCallum said Wednesday that analysis has shown most BC Lions spectators are from Surrey, and added that he suspects the same is true for the Vancouver Canucks. He said he would approach both teams to gauge their interest in relocating to a new Surrey stadium if he is re-elected.

“We’re winning all the international sports events from around the world,” he said.

“Around the world, different sports organizations are recognizing how big we are. We’ve got the spectators to watch now because of our growth.”

Meanwhile, Surrey Coun. Brenda Locke, who is also running for mayor, dismissed the proposal as “not anything with substance.

“I don’t know how that would ever work or where that will be. Certainly Surrey needs the infrastructure, but the kind of dollars that are attached to those kinds of projects are extraordinary, and without having commitment from the province and the federal government, it’s just talk,” she told Global News.

“We also have to remember we are heading into tough economic times, so to be making economic commitments that are significant dollars like that is irresponsible in my opinion.”

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There are currently five candidates in the fall race to become Surrey’s next mayor: former MP and MLA Gordie Hogg, Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, BC NDP MLA Jinny Sims, Locke and McCallum.

Locke is running under the Surrey Connect banner with councillor candidates Ramona Kaptyn and Sebastian Sajda. McCallum’s Safe Surrey Coalition includes incumbents Allison Patton, Mandeep Nagra, Laurie Guerra, and Doug Elford.

Both mayoral candidates applauded the latest development in the Cloverdale Sport and Ice Complex, whose two rinks will seat about 400 people for lacrosse, ball hockey, figure skating, hockey events, and more. The project — running several years behind schedule — is expected to cost more than $40 million.

“I am thrilled for the children but we have to remember we’re almost six years late on giving them an arena that they were promised in 2019,” said Locke.

“This new arena will not only provide additional ice to meet the needs of Cloverdale residents, but will serve both city-wide and destination sports needs of all sorts,” added McCallum.

McCallum said he has already approached the BC Lions and Vancouver Canucks about training at the Cloverdale Sport and Ice Complex when it opens, and said for the Canucks — “it’s a possibility in the future, yes.”

Meanwhile, Deanna Cox, president of the Cloverdale Minor Hockey Association, said she’s thrilled to launch the organization’s 50th anniversary season with the groundbreaking.

“I think everybody who fought so hard to get it, their kids will have all aged out by the time it opens but better late than never,” she said.

“I think we’ve seen what’s happened with our kids over the last couple of years — it’s so important to their mental health, having somewhere to go.”

Cox said the facilities will help teams avoid 4:30 a.m. ice times, give girls their own change rooms, and help the associations programs grow. The new complex is expected to open in about two years.