The Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce says it wants a new arena and events centre in the city’s core.

"The chamber supports the construction of a new arena/events centre and is advocating that it be built downtown," the business organization said in a statement Wednesday.

"The chamber is supporting the downtown location because of the immediate economic benefits it would provide to the community and because it would benefit the city’s long-range revenue and expenditure structure."

The chamber said it is "very encouraged by the PricewaterhouseCoopers report that there are two viable options for the location of the new arena/events centre and look forward to council’s decision on Tuesday, June 27."

The organization has advocated that "economic impact be treated as the single most important criterion in selecting a site for the new arena," according to its release. "And the report by PWC released on Monday … indicates that the greatest impact would come from a facility in the downtown. As PWC’s report states, there is already a critical mass of businesses downtown that would see an economic boost from a new arena."

But regardless of which location council decides is the best, the chamber is urging the city to move forward on a plan and proceed with the construction of a new facility.

“A new arena has the potential to bring increased economic growth to our community and council needs to move forward with this project,” said Tracy Nutt, chair of the chamber board. “The PWC report indicates that the greatest economic impact will come from an arena located in the downtown, and for that reason we urge council to select the downtown site. But first and foremost, the arena should be built, wherever council decides to build it.”

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