Earl: Andrew Dreschel is not so sure about Bob Bratina but he has his fingers crossed:
<!-- m -->[url=http://www.thespec.com/news/elections/article/270749--bratina-defies-the-odds-in-a-bolt-from-the-blue-win]http://www.thespec.com/news/elections/a ... e-blue-win[/url]<!-- m -->
It will be interesting to see how the new councillors shake out on the stadium issue. And Jason Farr. Wow!
IMO, the last 2 sentences in Andrew’s article are the most significant.
[url=http://www.thespec.com/news/elections/article/270749--bratina-defies-the-odds-in-a-bolt-from-the-blue-win]http://www.thespec.com/news/elections/a ... e-blue-win[/url]there's no question to my mind that once Bratina threw his hat in the ring,he stepped up his game around the council table.
He became more statesmanlike and reasonable, less emotional and discursive.
With luck, that will be the Mayor Bob who dons the chain of office.
at 3 recent committee-of-the-whole council meetings I attended.
During the campaign Bob told the public what was frustrating him.
He spoke of the you-scratch-my-back ward-oriented councillors
who were working together to protect their own ward interests
whether that was the best thing to do for City as a whole or not.
We have a strong core of veteran councillors in Lloyd Ferguson,
Tom Jackson, Terry Whitehead, Brad Clark, Bernie Morelli
and promising second term and rookie councillors,
who I believe will rally around Bob and help him
to push forward on worthy goals for the whole city.
A very urgent goal for the City is funding for the stadium.
If money is not forthcoming soon to buy the CP Rail land
Confederation Park, the non-brownfield
city owned land will soon be on the table.
The question isn't so much how will Bratina affect the TiCats, but the newly mandated Council. A clearly disfunctional collection of entrenched local activists, Hamilton City Council holds the cards in the Great Stadium Debate. With only one exception, Council was re-elected in a landslide compared to the new mayor's 38% capture of the popular vote. As a media celebrity who ran on his fame rather than issues, it is Bratina who has to work with Council, not the other way around.
The best I'm hoping for is an appeal to common sense. If Bratina puts Confed Park on the table under the banner of $50M savings and suggests Fast Freddy and Cool Chad were in cohoots with their West Harbour obsession then there's hope. Otherwise this whole deal could still go down the drain and shortly thereafter the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
Agreed 100%!
I don’t think much will change.
Local activists? who are they? I must have missed it.
Did a cadre of Matt Jelly clones get elected last time and get re-elected this time, boys?
I think he may be referring to councillors who, by and large, are more concerned with the interests of their respective wards than they are with the city as a whole.
Is that right, Ockham?
That’s genarally how I feel.
Finally someone who posted something that made sense …
the mayor does not elect city council nor does he appoint them … council is in it for the jobs and votes you think they are just going against what the majority of what people who vote them in want just to appease a mayor that really means nothing for them ?
but hey … 60% of Hamilton does not care either way … that has to affect the cats more than any mayor could …and only about 4% (altho i think a bit less) of the population actually really cares about the cats … or at least shows it
I wouldn’t expect to see things all of a sudden become golden for the stadium issue … i still think its going to be silliness going right up to whatever final deadline gets decided (or until the cats bail out whatever comes first)
In my opinion the best thing Bratina could do is to re-visit all the sites, including CP, in order to determine the best location in the city as a whole. This is a chance to make a new start for some and to re-consider for others. The costs are becoming somewhat prohibitive on Aberdeen and I think we should just step back, take a breath, and recheck exactly where we are. BB will probably want to do that but the question is, will the rest follow suit? As I have stated before, I don't think the downtown area is the place to build a facility of this nature, and another objective look at all possible locations will not hurt anything. If they decide to go ahead on Aberdeen, then so be it.
That’s my belief.
Bratina is putting Confed Park on the table. He now needs to get a 2/3 majority of Councillors to buy into his vision. Obviously Chad Collins won’t but that’s just one vote.
I agree – as long as there’s a timeline put on these search and rescue missions. Let’s not forget that time is money here. So, while costs at Aberdeen maybe getting prohibitive, the entire project gets costly when years of evaluation take place. Hopefully there’s a happy medium.
And perhaps there’s more information that’s been collected than we’ve all been privy to.
Collective thinking: Leeds' approach is to sell itself as a region, rather than just a single city (caption from photo in article)
We might be able to take some hints from Leeds, UK:
... Leeds' approach is to see itself not as a city, but as a region. It markets itself as the Leeds City Region (LCR), which encompasses large outlying cities such as York and Bradford and has a total population of 2.9 million people. This compares to a Leeds metropolitan population of just over 750,000. "When you're talking about a region of nearly 3 million people and a GVA [gross value added] of £50m [$74m] a year, then you're punching in a different weight," says Howard Kew, chief executive of the LCR inward investment agency, Financial Leeds. ...
Source:
w ww.thebanker.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/7428/Looking_beyond_London.html
It just seems to me that there is a lot of time and cost associated with the present site under consideration eg: to clean up the property, rip out rail lines, re-locate the CP, etc. Maybe I’m simplifying things too much but none of these thing come into the picture on vacant land, particularly if it is owned by the city. If the city should decide to look at open space somewhere, it seems to me they could begin the developement process in the near future instead of dragging their feet with the previously mentioned concerns. Cost is definitely going to be a factor in this process, and where the money is coming from, I think Bratina is very cost conscious in any project, and that may be why he and others may re-visit alternate sites.
On CHML's BIll Kelly show Bratina said if the stadium is built on Aberdeen it will be a glorified set of bleachers due to the extra costs. If the stadium is built on Confed Park those monies can be used on making the area a destination point for tourism. Council and the mayor have an obligation to use the taxpayers money in the best way. Now that Freddy is out of the picture Chad Collins will be shown to be acting contrary to the best interests of the City.
This would be a positive for sure, there are many negatives and extra costs that would have to be invested into CPark to make it work transportation wise. Not sure he could sell that to council.
NO KIDDING! :thup: :thup:
Maybe I just don’t know the merits of the place well enough. There was a time when I liked this location, but the more I looked into it, the more it turns me off. Why isn’t it a hustling bustling hotbed of activity now? When I was a youngster, my visits there were few and far between (largely due to location – I think) so, I haven’t been there in probably 12 years. Is it possible to become what was envisioned with the industrial sector of the city in close proximity?
I get the cost issue, I do. So, if we have to settle for CPark, then fine. But, at some point is the city not going to have to clean up these brownfields? Or, will it take place under a different budget so the locals don’t get upset? Or, will it not happen at all until it becomes such an issue that the public makes a real stink about it and it’s cost much more in the currency of perception (ie. Rheem)?
From a location perspective only (so, notwithstanding a shiny new stadium), as a fan I see little appeal to Confederation Park and as a citizen of the city I don’t see much of a legacy here either. That said, I’m growing weary of the entire thing and would be happy with either a new stadium at an idiotic site, or even a cheaper refurbishment of Ivor Wynne. The team’s objectives of a new stadium become more confusing to me as the days go by. And, Mayor Brats seems to be only looking for the economical choice anyway.
Bingo! Bratina is “getting it”. :thup:
Sell from the outside in especially in Hamilton’s case where there is no highway access to the in.
slo, think broader, you’re still stuck in the mindset of only one way will clean up a brownfield or add value to the city. There are many ways to achieve similar goals. Take legacy. The stadium will be so visible to so many people during the winter months driving by the QEW and is paying monies at that time with money from naming rights. That’s a legacy in and of itself that can help pay for the stadium, give money to the TiCats and help clean up brownfields. A broader concept of legacy for example.
Also take the appeal of Confed Park. Nice waterfront trail, excellent highway access and the ability with the new foot bridge to ride your bike from way up on the east mountain all the way to Confed Park. Huge appeal for me. It’s not all just about no. of restaurants or bars within 4 blocks of a stadium say, that is a factor, yes, but only one.
And I disagree that Bratina is only looking at it from the cheapest way, not at all IMHO, in fact just the opposite, he’s looking at it from a value perspective I would say.
Totally, I hear ya. It’s more a matter of getting funds when funds are available. We’ve all seen how the private sector looks at cleaning up anything. Generally, that sector makes the mess, refuses to clean it, then avoids it until it’s cleaned up. So, I just hate passing up opportunities to actually put a dent into these issues.
I’m not saying there won’t be appeal at the doorstep, my concern is for the efforts to rebrand Hamilton as something other than a working class steeltown. I also feel that the opportunity to regionalize this team lies in the western corridor – the K/W, Guelph and Brantford area – not the Niagara Peninsula. For these reasons, this location, especially when compared to the Aberdeen site, is very much in conflict with those objectives. Again, though, the objectives of both the team and the city are a little ambiguous/ confusing.
I also feel that the opportunity to regionalize this team lies in the western corridor – the K/W, Guelph and Brantford area – not the Niagara Peninsula
I know people from London, K/W, Brantford that all find it very easy to travel to Bills and Sabres games in Buffalo travelling on the QEW as they come from London on the 403 or KW down highway 6 onto the 403 and then onto the QEW. A Confed Park site will be very easy to get to for marketing to this area as Buffalo has seen for years. And as well The Falls for that destination. The QEW works quite well.
Im with Earl on this.
Confederation Park is extremely easy to get to from anywhere (Niagara, Toronto, KW).