The city’s special arena committee has come up with a recommendation on which of the two city-owned properties should be the preferred site for a new arena.

Chair Mark King says they’re siding with a double-pad at the Omischl Complex.

That decision was made at Wednesday’s committee meeting.

“The shear cost that would’ve been involved in order to provide secondary entrances into the Thomson Field area, from the committee’s view point, it would’ve been tremendously more expensive to provide that,” he says.

King says other reasons they’re siding with Omischl over Thomson Field include the loss of facilities at that location.

“The trail network that runs through there, Thomson Field itself, that would’ve created some major issues as far as parking is concerned,” he says.

Council has the final say on all of this, which will also factor in the three private options that are being looked into.

Those proposals involve Pinewood Park Drive, Nipissing University and West Ferris Secondary School.

The arena would replace the West Ferris Arena (pictured above).