The operator currently running Kelowna’s Prospera Place has intensified its challenge to the city’s plan to hand arena operations to Oak View Group Canada, publishing its own commercial proposal and a commissioned poll while the City of Kelowna continues to withhold details of the competing bids.
The City of Kelowna named OVG Canada as the “top-ranked operator” for Prospera Place and MNP Place in October 2025, saying contract negotiations were underway for a transition beginning in 2029. Nearly a year later, the city told TicketNews the procurement process remains in progress and declined to answer questions about what remains under negotiation, how OVG outscored incumbent operator GSL Group, the financial terms of the competing proposals, or potential changes to ticketing arrangements.
The city said releasing information while the procurement is active could violate British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and could undermine the integrity of the competitive process. It further said that even after a contract is signed, it may only release high-level details such as the name of the selected operator, the overall contract value and a general description of services, while individual proposals, evaluation criteria, scoring and negotiation details will remain confidential.
GSL Releases Its Own Proposal
GSL, which has operated Prospera Place since the arena opened in 1999, responded by making its commercial proposal public and calling on the city to disclose the evaluation criteria, weightings and scores used in the procurement process. GSL Group President and CEO Graham Lee said the city has not provided information about the criteria or scores to justify its decision, and said GSL wants that information shared with voters before October 17.
Lee said GSL has not filed a freedom-of-information request and has not initiated a procurement challenge or legal proceeding over the city’s decision.
GSL’s proposal includes a $75,000 annual management fee for Prospera Place, with a structure directing most operating income above certain thresholds back into the venue. Under the plan, up to $800,000 in annual net operating income would go to the Kelowna Rockets, followed by GSL’s management fee. Of net operating income above $875,000, 97% would go into a proposed Prospera Place Capital & Community Fund, with the remaining 3% paid to GSL as an incentive fee. If net operating income fell below $800,000 in a given year, GSL would forgo its management fee. The proposal also includes attendance-based guarantees tied to payments to the Rockets.
GSL projects the structure would generate $11.6 million for reinvestment into Prospera Place over 10 years, a figure the company describes as projected future operating income rather than an upfront capital contribution. The proposal states Kelowna would still be responsible for funding any annual operating deficit outside GSL’s performance guarantee, recoverable from the proposed capital fund or future operating income, and that the city would remain responsible for capital repairs and maintenance.
Poll Shows Opposition Tied to Canada-U.S. Framing
GSL also released results from a Mustel Research Group survey of 301 Kelowna residents conducted Sept. 8 through Sept. 17, using a hybrid telephone and online methodology. Mustel said respondents were randomly selected, weighted to Statistics Canada demographics, and that the survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
When told the city was considering shifting management of Prospera Place “from the current Canadian operator to a subsidiary of Oak View Group, a US based company,” 76% of respondents said they opposed the change and 8% supported it. That question followed one referencing the “current trade dispute between Canada and the United States,” which found 88% of respondents said it was at least somewhat important for Kelowna to do business with Canadian companies over American ones. A separate question found 88% considered it important that Prospera Place be run by a Canadian company, including 68% who called it extremely or very important.
The poll results reflect opposition when the decision is framed around Canadian versus U.S. ownership, but the published results do not show respondents being given a side-by-side comparison of GSL’s and OVG’s financial or operational proposals before being asked for their views.
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