I can't help but think that at least some of Sutcliffe's motivation is putting a stick in the spokes of the NCC. To know Ottawa politics is to know that the city and the NCC hate each other, and the city would love to steal away the crown jewel of the NCC redevelopment. There are, however, two huge problems:
First is location. Let's be honest - downtown Ottawa is not all that big. Where exactly do you plan to put this building? Do you even have a list of three possible locations? There aren't very many possibilities, and any of the ones suggested so far all have significant issues attached to them. I grow weary of vague pipe dream discussions on the arena - it's time to get realistic and get shovels into the ground.
The second issue is taxpayer money - if Sutcliffe wants the rink downtown, the city is going to have to buck up considerably with, at the very least, land purchases, a ton of local street work, etc. Where is that money coming from, and will taxpayers have any tolerance for a whack of city money going towards an arena given the current economic realities? Something tells me that would be a dead letter with most taxpayers. They are already doing Lansdowne 2.0 which I support - that is city land, and the project is needed. They have done a good job with the first round at Lansdowne, turning a formerly useless dump of a site into something positive. Given their responsibilities there, however, it might be tough to also juggle and help finance a building for the Sens...