Final deliberations and votes are now only days away as the heated debate surrounding plans for Lansdowne Place 2.0, including a new arena replacing the current home of the PWHL's Ottawa Charge and OHL's Ottawa 67s, hits a crucial stage.

Tuesday morning, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe falsely quoted the number of games that the PWHL's Ottawa Charge drew crowds that would exceed the new proposed capacity for hockey at a new Lansdowne Arena in the future.

The Mayor used the new figure of 6,600 for a hockey capacity, one that only surfaced in Lansdowne documents this month after being quoted as 5,500 seated, and 6,500 total for the last year.

Last season the Charge's top attended game at TD Place Arena at Lansdowne park was 8,576. They also had home crowds of 8,424, 8,295, and 8,096 in the regular season, and drew crowds of 8,206, 8,011, and 7,282 in the playoffs. Overall, Ottawa's home attendance average, excluding playoff games was 6,888. If you add Ottawa's four home playoff games, the attendance average rises to 7,006. In their inaugural season, the Charge averaged 7,496 fans at TD Place Arena.

Ottawa's current averages however, are seated fans, far exceeding the 5,500 seated fans the new Lansdowne property proposes. It's unsure where the additional 1,100 fans will be in the new arena as most NHL arenas fit less than 1,000 for standing room. Many of the 1,100 spaces could be attributed to standing room spaces within private suites and luxury boxes.

In his interview with CBC Ottawa Morning's Rebecca Zandbergen, Sutcliffe downplayed the Charge's home attendance claiming only regular season games to assert the viability of the plan for the Charge.

"I went and looked at their attendance last year, there were only four games last year where the Charge drew more than 6,600 fans, which is the capacity of the new arena," Sutcliffe said on CBC Ottawa Morning. "They had many games where they were drawing, 5,000 fans, 6,000 fans to their games. I don't know what the future holds for the Charge, they may grow so substantially and be so successful that they will be playing at the Canadian Tire Centre or the new NHL arena on LeBreton Flats down the road."

Sutcliffe went on to say that they'd "listened to the community and we heard from the marketplace that the right size for a new arena was in the range of 5-7,000 capacity...that's what we heard from the community." 

Upon making that claim, host Rebecca Zandbergen interjected to has "Is that what you heard from the Charge as well?"

Sutcliffe did not claim to have spoken to the Charge, but rather stated the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) had been speaking with all tenants. OSEG owns the OHL's Ottawa 67s, who averaged only 3,885 fans during the regular season last year, missing the playoffs, as well as the CFL's Ottawa RedBlacks, who will be receiving new venues for their teams with tax payer assistance.

The Hockey News however, has communicated with staff at the PWHL and team levels confirming that the team is not happy with the proposed reduction in capacity.

"The team at OSEG has been talking with all the tenants who use Lansdowne Park, that includes the professional sports teams, but it also includes all of the other uses, the curling, the figure skating, the volleyball, the basketball, the rugby, all of those other events and the sweet spot for this type of arena is 5-7,000 capacity," said Sutcliffe when asked about his communication with the Charge. "So we'e going to have 7,000 capacity for entertainment events like concerts and shows, and 6,600 capacity for hockey, and that's what will work."

Several Ottawa councillors critiqued the city and OSEG's plans in recent days claiming the price tag, which has been reported at $419 million does not include several costs that will push the total price tag closer to $500 milllion, as well as the plan for reduced seating potentially impacting the Charge.

The Hockey News requested comment clarifying Sutcliffe's remarks. A response had yet to be received at the time of publication.