I know this a little off topic in a football form.
But how does everyone feel about the Bulldogs moving to Brantford
Michael Andlauer got a sweet deal from them
Even after Construction finishes on the arena I just have a feeling he won't return the team to Hamilton. We already lost the honey badgers for good. And what about the Rock what happens to them. Soon we'll be just have the cats again
I believe the Bulldogs have gone to Brantford...Not Brampton....Tom !!
All depends on whether they have a post-construction lease in Hamilton ... if not ... maybe ... if they do, doubt an OHL team is worth paying the penalties to break a lease ... expect Brantford is showcasing themselves for a future relocation.
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While it's frustrating, the City did nothing to help the team over the past few years.
They play in a 20k-seat arena that would be cheaper to completely rebuild than to renovate.
Andauer's plan to build an appropriate arena in VACANT space at Limeridge Mall (mostly at HIS expense) got kiboshed by the inner-city political Mafia - the same ones who insisted that THF be built in the West Harbour instead of anywhere a person could park their car or take transit.
Hamilton doesn't deserve an OHL or AHL team - let alone an NHL one.
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If he decides to come back to Hamilton it cost him 3 million dollars
The money that the city of Brampton put into renovate the arena
They get a free Arena upgrades for allowing the Bulldogs to stay
Does he have a legal obligation (i.e., signed lease) to return to Hamilton?
Inner-city political Mafia. I quite like that description.
The council had quite the makeover last election but so far I'm hearing that its also quite dysfunctional.
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no lease no future guarantees from the city of Hamilton
The Brantford arena is a short-term fix if the team stays there.
Will Brantford be willing to spend between 50 to 100 million to build a new rink to keep the Bulldogs?
Or maybe they'll renovate the Civic Centre and to Bulldogs will be forced to play in Hamilton during the renos. 
Thing is, it's in the details.
Limeridge is privately owned by Cadillac Fairview. A new arena helps their property value, and they wanted taxpayers to build them a $$ parking garage.
That doesn't do anything to help downtown revitalization, which has been a stated objective of the city for 20 odd years.
And our arena is in the right spot, Hamilton was ahead of the curve with a downtown arena in the 80s.
The WH stadium location was chosen to follow this same downtown trend, with a potential district to go along with it.
WH would have also leveraged upper government funds to remediate contaminated lands that the city is stuck with unless a private developer pays themselves.
But sure, let's go with the lazy "corupt city council blah blah" narrative.
Will the Bulldogs come back?
Would they like to play in a newly renovated $100M plus arena?
Unless the NHL is here, the Bulldogs will come home.
If not, it won't take long for a different OHL team to move in. Sherry Basin who owns the Otters wanted the lease to Copps 8ish years ago.
And the CEBL will have a new team here. And we'll get events like a World Juniors, Memorial Cup etc.
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Corrupt? Unknown.
Lazy? My opinion is yes.
Empire-building? This hits the nail right on the head.
So the city didn't bother to look at the increased tax revenue from C-F and the team.
As for downtown - the entire periphery of Hamilton has been ignored by council, the HSR, any rapid transit plans that aren't two decades in the future, have fewer services, higher taxes, more disposable income.
[quote="SteelCitySteve, post:11, topic:83938"]
WH would have also leveraged upper government funds to remediate contaminated lands that the city is stuck with unless a private developer pays themselves.[/quote]
IIRC, the amount of contamination cleanup was completely unknown, with remediation cost estimated from a low of $3million up to a high of $30million, the cost to come out of the city's stadium budget ($150million?), no upper level government $$$ available to assist.
People forget the facts….environmental cleanup alone was not going to allow the stadium to be built in time..CN rail (IIRC] also wanted millions to move their shunting yard. Who was going to pay for all this? The Feds or Province weren’t going to.
People need to tell the whole story before throwing blame out there.
Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge. Plus there is a old thread that talks about all this.
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CN was only an issue for residential development, same with site remediation. This is why a stadium was a good fit.
all accurate.
west harbour was the worst location option.
the wave pool area would have been the premiere location.
instead we settled in the middle. How Hamiltonian of us 
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I thought the rail yard was an issue because the vision was for an entertainment district to make it a feasible location. Plus just as bad to get to as THF.
Confederation Park or East Mountain. All the transit and parking available with major roads nearby.
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Confederation Park was premiere. We really dropped the ball on that one!
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as for my opinion on the 'dogs, which I'm a big fan of (and have seen many local games), they are gone for good.
But once our arena reno is complete we'll have a new OHL team .... just won't be the bulldogs. Maybe we'll restart up the Hamilton Steelhawks.