The City of Surrey will be getting a new arena, which the Vancouver Giants will make their new home.
In a release, the city and the Surrey City Development Corporation said the City Centre Arena and Cultural Event Centre will be equipped with 10,000 seats for sports, concerts and cultural events in the city.
“When we say big things are happening in Surrey, we mean it, and a new arena of this scale is as big as it gets,” Mayor Brenda Locke said in a release.
“Bringing this arena to Surrey means jobs, investment, conference capacity, and major sports, arts and entertainment like never before. We’re already the economic powerhouse of the region, and this is another step in Surrey’s rise as a world-class city.”
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The city anticipates the project will generate $2.4 billion in economic benefits over the next 10 years.
Aside from the arena, it will include a hotel, conference space and housing, according to the city.
The arena will be built on land directly across from city hall and the Surrey Central SkyTrain Station, which the city will acquire through a land swap agreement of three city-owned parcels in exchange for the five parcels at 10355 King George Blvd.
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The City Centre Arena and Cultural Event Centre is anticipated to be completed by 2030, with a net estimated cost of $360 million. The city says that funding for the project was provided for in its 2026 budget.
The city can spend 1/2 a billion on a rec center (price always goes up) but they can’t spend a hundred million on affordable housing. When the giants host a game, spectators will be stepping over drug addicts and homeless people and the police budget will have to increase substantially. I don’t know what they have in mind for the Surrey central bus loop but people can hardly walk through there now, add 10,000 people to the place
They better not touch Top Kings restaurant.
Surrey’s announcement that the City Centre Arena and Cultural Event Centre “will generate $2.4 billion in economic benefits over the next 10 years” raises an obvious public-accountability question: economic benefits to whom, and measured how?
Economic-impact figures like this are often presented as if they are net gains to residents, but they typically depend on definitions and assumptions—whether the estimate counts gross spending or “new” activity; how much spending is simply redirected from other Surrey businesses (displacement); and what portion of the economic activity would have happened anyway without the project (baseline). Just as importantly, none of that is clarified in the public-facing messaging. A claim of “$2.4 billion” is not self-interpreting when taxpayers are not shown the cost to the public and the modeling behind the number.
If the city believes this arena truly delivers strong net benefits, it should publish the full methodology: what “economic benefits” means in this context, the baseline forecast, the event/attendance assumptions, how displacement/leakage were handled, and a sensitivity range—not just a headline figure. Without that, the $2.4 billion statement functions more as political reassurance than a transparent, testable forecast.
Surrey can debate the project on its merits without inflating economic benefits. What residents deserve is clarity on costs, risks, and net impacts—not slogans.
Mean while the road in front of where I live is like driving over moguls. 138 & 108. All I get is lip service when I ask when it will be repaired. I also think they are dreaming about costing 360M
“Surrey’s rise as a world class city” pfft hahahahaha what a delusional bltch. RIP the VANCOUVER Giants