Total Hockey doesn't score; let's hope council learned
Thu May 15, 2008
When it came to Total Hockey, Clarington taxpayers got played badly. In February 2006 questions were raised concerning the $1.8-million price tag associated with what was then being billed as a hockey museum. Brian McFarlane, the long-time Hockey Night in Canada commentator and Peter Puck creator, had supplied more than 1,300 artifacts to the museum that eventually came to be known as Total Hockey. At the same time, Clarington taxpayers were facing ever-increasing property tax bills and the addition of Total Hockey just added to the burden. Fast forward to present day and it appears Total Hockey is still sucking money from the taxpayer. This week we learned Clarington paid twice the value of a five-year-old appraisal for Mr. McFarlane's hockey collection. According to the appraisal done five years before council purchased it, the collection was worth $112,825. But Clarington paid $225,000. Clearly, the big winner of this deal wasn't the taxpayer but Mr. MacFarlane. Now Clarington council has to figure out what to do with his collection, with Total Hockey a total bust. Councillors are being asked to consider a new appraisal to dismantle the museum. Staff estimates it will cost about $27,000, including a $2,500 appraisal of the collection, to prepare the mothballed museum to allow a tenant to take over the space in time for July 1. Two years ago many people hoped Total Hockey would defy their expectations, that it would be as successful as other hockey museums such as the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. But there were warnings sounded that hockey museums are tourist attractions and once residents visited Total Hockey it would be left to tourists to venture into the world of Peter Puck. Apparently not enough visitors chose to enter that world. Clarington council had never undertaken a project like Total Hockey before and it should never gamble with taxpayers' money again. Let's hope this council has learned from the mistakes of the last council and will make the dismantling of this total mistake as cost-efficient as possible.
-- Clarington This Week