Dear Mr. Young re: stadium location

and IF toronto loses the bid?

Let's see, Toronto loses the bid? That combined with no money from the Ticats towards keeping IWS up and many people in the city not wanting their tax dollars thrown into a piece of real estate like IWS that will not appreciate in value in all likihood therefore no asset to the city, I'd say the Ticats will die a slow or maybe not so slow death.

[url]http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/516999[/url]

Not sure if this article has been posted or not. But it is a quick little entertaining read. And uses the San Diego Padres as a reference.

Discuss.

;)
  • paul

Andrew Dreschel says Merulla has economists on his side that Hamilton should have no part in the Pan-Am Games. So this man says in this article today:

[url=http://www.thespec.com/article/516991]www.thespec.com/article/516991[/url]

the local cable 14 morning show is talking about the Ticats right now and the host says that Sam Merulla and the Mayor will be on to talk about the new stadium

With all the typing I did yesterday, I forgot to stick in my idea for the name for the stadium.

Pioneer Field

In a lot of ways, The City of Hamilton has been a pioneer for a lot of things not to do with football and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats ---Wildcats + Tigers--- have certainly been pioneers in football both in Canada and North America

I believe every word of that, actually, yet I still disagree with Merulla.

As I wrote yesterday, the games are mostly irrelevant, and any non-infrastructural legacy attributed to them is mostly wishful thinking. A stadium is an expense, both to build and to maintain, but it and the things it hosts are nice things for the citizens of a vibrant city to have.

That’s why the location thing is absolutely critical to my way of thinking - if you can leverage the games to clean up contaminated brownfields and kickstart waterfront development, at a federal/provincial subsidized discount, then the investment has a chance to pay off in spades down the road. It it’s just about building a stadium in a meadow somewhere, then I’d be skeptical about all of the other “benefits” and would boil it down to a much simpler question - is it worth $60M of Hamilton taxpayer money to build a new home for the Ticats?

The western waterfront is one of the most valuable largely-untapped resources this city has - tap that resource properly and you’ll have lots of money to pay for sewers and pothole repair. Continuing to open up more meadows south of the city to developers just to create cash flow and temporary economic activity isn’t going to fix any sewers or potholes in the lower city. They’ll still need to be fixed, but with what money?

It’s not about facilities. For all the problems about Montreal’s Olympics and Expo, they got a great subway system and some high-value man-made-island real estate as legacy. Subsidized by you. For all the issues in Vancouver, they’re geting the much needed, extremely costly widening of the highway from Vancouver to Whistler as legacy. Subsidized by you. Isn’t it about time to get some of that legacy coming back at you.

I have a better idea - if Merulla is setting himself up to be the wet blanket in all of this, let’s offer to name it Sam Merulla Stadium. That dude is so keen on self-promotion that he’ll switch sides in a heartbeat. :wink:

I think we should relocate Bernie Arbour stadium, and the football fields somewhere else. And build the stadium here, this would be a perfect spot. Great traffic access from all directions, Mohawk Rd., Limeridge Rd., Redhill Expwy. close to the Link. And could you imagine the view over the mountain from the stands. Redhill Valley, Lake Ontario, the City. Perfect.

Perhaps the Haudenosaunee should be brought into the picture right now. I would put big money on the fact that they would recommend using the stadium and infrastructure to help clean up some of the damage done downtown. As well, for all the reasons mentioned previously, to stem the tide of urban sprawl.

An arrangement could then be set up with them, just like with the Red Hill Creek Expressway, to begin to re-naturalize the surrounding lands. Just think, with the injection of investment into downtown and the spurring of cleanups of toxic wastelands – coupled with some Haudenosaunee expertise – we could really begin to revitalize the waterfront.

Wonder if there are any Haudenosaunee on these boards that could comment.

Ok, here's to the new:

SAM MERULLA STADIUM

:lol: