Why the Vancouver Giants want the new 10,000-seat Surrey City Centre Arena, now facing uncertainty with incoming mayor Doug McCallum

The City of Surrey’s plan to build the new 10,000-seat Surrey City Centre Arena faces an uncertain future as Mayor-elect Doug McCallum prepares to take office with a promise to keep public money out of the project.

During the civic election campaign, McCallum has said the project would have to be completely privately funded under his administration’s leadership.

His Safe Surrey Coalition party’s election commitments include reaffirming the project’s estimated construction cost and withdrawing the municipal government’s funding set aside by outgoing Mayor Brenda Locke.

You might also like:
• How the City of Surrey's $116.6-million land swap with Wesgroup Properties will secure the Vancouver Giants arena site
• New renderings of the Vancouver Giants arena in Surrey City Centre
• Vancouver Giants moving to new $360-million, 10,000-seat arena in Surrey City Centre
• Vancouver Giants' planned departure caught Langley Township officials by surprise
• City of Surrey sets aside $200 million for new 10,000-seat indoor arena
• Inside Canada's first-of-its-kind stacked five-arena complex in Langley Township
• World-class short-track speed skating competition to return annually to Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum
• Canucks now looking at Downtown Vancouver location for their practice facility: report

In July 2026, after performing design and planning work and conducting a bidding process, Locke announced the arena would anchor a new integrated mixed-use development, featuring a luxury hotel, a conference centre, residential uses, retail/restaurant uses, and a major public plaza. The entire development would occupy the 5.1-acre former Safeway site at 10355 King George Blvd., situated at the southwest corner of the intersection of 104 Avenue and King George Boulevard — immediately east of Surrey City Hall and SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station.

At that juncture, the City also announced they had signed an agreement in principle with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants to pursue the project, with the team becoming the anchor tenant of the new arena, their new home ice.

The specific arena component is estimated to cost up to $360 million to build, with Locke previously committing up to $200 million in municipal funding — spread over the City’s five-year, 2026-2030 capital plan — toward this portion of the development.

Additionally, to acquire the former Safeway site, the City arranged a cashless land swap with local developer Wesgroup, whose previous Civic District proposal for a high-density mix of residential and commercial uses on the property had stalled for years amid persistently weak market conditions. The deal involved exchanging three City-owned properties elsewhere in Surrey — two industrial sites and a commercial property — for the former Safeway site, with each side of the exchange valued at $116.6 million.

However, McCallum and other critics during the civic election campaign argued that the properties the City agreed to trade were worth more than the former Safeway site.

McCallum also promised to conduct an independent forensic audit of land transactions made under Locke, including the deal with Wesgroup for the Surrey City Centre Arena site. In an Oct. 6, 2026 campaign announcement, McCallum said this review would be his first order of business as mayor.

“Twelve questionable land deals. One hundred and fifty million dollars overpaid. And a mayor who will not explain a single one of them. Surrey taxpayers deserve to know who got rich,” argued McCallum in a statement at the time.

This week could provide the first indication of how quickly those promises will translate into action.

McCallum and the incoming Surrey City Council led by his Safe Surrey Coalition supermajority are scheduled to be sworn in at Surrey City Hall on the evening of Monday, Nov. 2, 2026.

But the arena project has already moved beyond an announcement. Demolition, early construction work, and site preparation at the former Safeway site began in early September 2026. During the groundbreaking ceremony with the Giants, Locke asserted that the project had passed the point of no return, even if political leadership changed after the October 2026 civic election, citing key contracts that had already been signed. Major construction work is scheduled to begin in 2027, with completion and opening planned for 2030.

For the Giants, the envisioned move is an opportunity to reach more fans, overwhelmingly improve access by being located right next to major public transit services, and pursue events their existing home could not accommodate.

Currently, the Giants play at the 5,300-seat main arena of Langley Events Centre at Willoughby Community Park. They have used this Township of Langley-owned facility since 2016, when they relocated from their previous longtime home of the Pacific Coliseum at the PNE fairgrounds in Vancouver. Their current lease expires in 2030.

In a previous interview with Daily Hive Urbanized this past summer, shortly after the project and the Giants’ involvement were confirmed by Locke, Giants majority owner and president Ron Toigo outlined why the Surrey City Centre location appealed to his team.

“The transit, the travel, closer to Vancouver, closer to the population base. The size of the building, the ability to go after World Juniors, Memorial Cups, and other events that the league has access to. It just opens up so many more avenues for us that we’re unable to do based on where we are right now,” said Toigo.

The proposed site is directly across the street from not only SkyTrain’s Surrey Central Station, which will see drastically improved regional connections when the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension opens in 2029, but also a major bus exchange. This gives the venue a direct connection to the region’s SkyTrain network and other major public transit services.

For Toigo, that access and being located within the core of Surrey’s emerging downtown area is central to attracting people to both hockey games and other entertainment. The site’s central location and high level of regional accessibility by public transit stands in stark contrast to that of the location of Langley Events Centre.

He saw Surrey City Centre as a way to draw from a wider population while remaining within reach of the team’s existing Langley audience.

“The transit access is essential to any success in this kind of business,” said Toigo, before adding that “it’s still relatively close to Langley. It’s just a little closer to everything.”

A larger arena would also change the team’s approach to selling tickets. Toigo asserted that the Giants’ historic average annual attendance at Langley Events Centre had to be understood in the context of the building’s limited capacity. Having more seats available would create room for a larger audience and give the team more reason to spend on advertising and promotions.

“We certainly expect to see attendance increase somewhat dramatically by moving to a bigger venue,” he said.

The opportunity extended beyond regular Giants games. Toigo said the larger venue would put the team in a position to pursue major junior hockey tournaments, including the CHL’s Memorial Cup and the IIHF’s World Junior Ice Hockey Championship.

He also said the building was being planned to attract major concert tours, providing another option for shows that might otherwise use Rogers Arena in Downtown Vancouver.

“It’s just more amenities, more things to sell, and more opportunities for things to happen. The building’s really built for bringing A-list concerts to the city,” said Toigo.

In his view, the combination of the arena’s size, its design, and its immediate adjacency to major public transit services could help it serve audiences South of the Fraser, while also attracting visitors from elsewhere in Metro Vancouver.

But the Giants’ involvement would not mean taking responsibility for running the entire venue, similar to how the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks of Canucks Sports & Entertainment operate the City of Abbotsford-owned Rogers Forum (formerly the Abbotsford Centre). Toigo said a separate operator with experience managing such facilities was being sought by the City.

The team would, however, have its own financial commitment to the project.

“We have an investment requirement that we have to put into it, in the millions,” he shared with Daily Hive Urbanized.

Toigo said the amount would depend on the completed drawings and the tenant improvements required for the Giants, meaning the spaces and features fitted out for the team’s use.

He repeatedly emphasized that the interest in Surrey reflected the possibilities of a larger venue, while praising the team’s existing relationship with Langley Events Centre and the Township of Langley.

“The people there have been great. No issues there. It was really the opportunity to move to a bigger venue that’s closer to transit and gives us the opportunity to operate in a different manner,” he said.

When asked about concerns that the Township of Langley had not been informed before the the City of Surrey’s announcement, Toigo said confidentiality agreements had restricted what the participants could disclose.

“We all had to sign non-disclosure agreements. We certainly honour our obligations there. I wish I could have been more transparent with them, but there are legal obligations,” he said.

Toigo said shortly after the announcement, they spoke with the Township of Langley. The team could be given more time to remain at Langley Events Centre beyond their current lease expiry if Surrey City Centre Arena took longer than expected to complete.

For Toigo, the larger venue offered the Giants a chance to compete financially with other teams playing in bigger buildings. However, he acknowledged that additional seats and amenities would only go so far in bringing people through the doors.

“At the end of the day, you still have to put a product on the ice that people want to come and see in order for them to come to these games,” Toigo told Daily Hive Urbanized.

But the Giants’ enthusiasm for a bigger, more accessible home is now set against a considerably less enthusiastic incoming mayor. McCallum’s criticism of the land deal and promise of an audit signal a more skeptical approach in Surrey’s municipal government, while his opposition to City funding raises uncertainty over whether the arena can proceed as envisioned. The new City Council’s first steps could offer an indication of what comes next.

You might also like:
• How the City of Surrey's $116.6-million land swap with Wesgroup Properties will secure the Vancouver Giants arena site
• New renderings of the Vancouver Giants arena in Surrey City Centre
• Vancouver Giants moving to new $360-million, 10,000-seat arena in Surrey City Centre
• Vancouver Giants' planned departure caught Langley Township officials by surprise
• City of Surrey sets aside $200 million for new 10,000-seat indoor arena
• Inside Canada's first-of-its-kind stacked five-arena complex in Langley Township
• World-class short-track speed skating competition to return annually to Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum
• Canucks now looking at Downtown Vancouver location for their practice facility: report