Kitchener, Ontario

[Ex-Ithacan]

I know I've seen pics of Kitchener before, but couldn't for the life of me remember what it looked like. Glad you posted these, the memory fools me sometimes. I like the Bella Bridal building in the 1st pic, looks like it would be a great place to make into a multi-storied club. Thanks for the tour flar, fun as always.

[boden]

Originally Posted by Blitz

^ True, but what you didn't see were all the hideous concrete slabs in Kitchener...that sucks any Midwestern-ness right out of it.

I agree this is one of the better Kitchener tours I've seen too, very nice job!

Drugs are baad....slabs are goooooooooooooooooooooooooodddddddddddddd!

[DetroitSky]

Very nice!

[Serge]

What a good thread, a city I had absolutely no idea... how it is/was/is. Fantastic.

[xzmattzx]

Kitchener looks denser than I thought it would be. It looks pretty nice.

[MolsonExport]

Better than I expected. Nice.

[Canasian]

Cool. I'd really never seen dtwn Kitchener, love the TD building! Nice photos!

[hulkrogan]

No offense, but it blows my mind that a city of that size thinks they can support an NHL franchise. There is no way.

[koops65]

Awesome pics flar! And for a brief comment to hulkrogan, its not just Kitchener, or Waterloo & Cambridge for that matter (approx 1/2 million people in all 3 cities), but there are over 3 million people living within a 1 hour drive... and thats not even including Toronto itself...

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Kitchener looks denser than I thought it would be. It looks pretty nice.

It's not that dense, but it is and will be getting denser.
Currently, it's actually a pretty small downtown for the size of its metro.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=127954

[hulkrogan]

Originally Posted by koops65

Awesome pics flar! And for a brief comment to hulkrogan, its not just Kitchener, or Waterloo & Cambridge for that matter (approx 1/2 million people in all 3 cities), but there are over 3 million people living within a 1 hour drive... and thats not even including Toronto itself...

I don't want to get too off topic here, but half a million is really borderline to support an NHL franchise, especially when NHL cities with a million people have hit very hard times and come close to moving with a few years of poor team performance (Edmonton, Calgary). More importantly is the lack of corporate support. That's what killed Nashville in the first place, and I know there are a lot of companies based in this area, but are there more than Winnepeg or Quebec?

[koops65]

I honestly dont know if we could support a team or not, no one can tell the future. I'd certainly like to see us given a chance to try, just like all the other cities in the past who used to host a team. I'll also add that regargless if its KW, or Hamilton, or anywhere else in southern Ont. the team will probably fill the arena night after night. This is a large market in the hockey crazy hotbed of North America. Any one of the mid-sized cities here could support a team IMO.

[LMich]

I'm not sure you understand all that goes into developing a new sports franchise. It's hard enough to do it in larger markets in the NHL. The Kitchener-Waterloo would be, by far, the smallest market, I believe, and wedged between Red Wing, Maple Lead, and Red Wing county, at that. The market is already saturated in this area, and I really don't think the area could find enough enough viewers in this modern TV market to justify the creation of a new team in this area.

[flar]

Thanks everyone.

There is a lot of NHL in Ontario disucussion in this thread:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=131850

[Waterlooson]

Originally Posted by LMich

I'm not sure you understand all that goes into developing a new sports franchise. It's hard enough to do it in larger markets in the NHL. The Kitchener-Waterloo would be, by far, the smallest market, I believe, and wedged between Red Wing, Maple Lead, and Red Wing county, at that. The market is already saturated in this area, and I really don't think the area could find enough enough viewers in this modern TV market to justify the creation of a new team in this area.

The population within a 1-hour drive of K-W is around 3 million... and per thousand population, that area has far more hockey fans, than virtually any US market. Most US "markets" don't care about hockey... in Canada, they do. It doesn't matter that a city (like LV) has 2 million people if only 0.1 % are interested in the sport.

Like what is the market for pork sausage in Israel? Should be good because they have lots of people?

Therefore, K-W would certainly not be the smallest hockey market.... it would be at least mid-sized.

[WaterlooInvestor]

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[WZ1]

Always a treat Flar..

[mello]

I don't know why but I don't like that Kaufman lofts building. Maybe it just looks sooo long and the lack of trees combined with that makes it look like arse in my opinion.

Where are all of the people in these photos? Was it Sunday morning? Place looks dead... But I did enjoy these shots, nothing that was striking though maybe some nice new buildings are on the way.

[flar]

^^it was a Saturday morning.

Thanks everyone!

[matt602]

My only visit to downtown Kitchener was very enjoyable. Beautiful work the city has done not only to preserve the heritage buildings but to make tasteful modern buildings. City Hall was fun to enjoy an iced cappuccino at... what with the fountains and such. My visit was also on an incredibly hot day.