This informal drop-in session will outline the competition process, discuss timelines, and outline how the public can provide input. This is your first opportunity to add your name to the contact list and pre-register for upcoming workshops.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
3:30 to 8 p.m.
6 p.m. - Mayor O’Brien and Councillors Peter Hume and Clive Doucet will speak
Lansdowne Park - Salon A (Civic Centre)
I can let the Ottawa folks know without hesitation that if you want a renovated stadium, you’re being shouted down. Because of the location of the meetings, it tends to be populated mostly by residents of the Glebe. They have no use for the southside of the stadium and are saying so. And without a southside, the Hunt group is not capable of bringing a football team to Ottawa.
The rules of the Design Competition say that there must be a Frank Clair stadium, but do not specify that the stadium has to have a south side. If you want one, you need to say so. It’s that simple.
So the bulk of this thing was to provide a little history lesson and further educate people as to how they can participate. The site...
http://ottawa.econsultation.ca/lansdowne?lang=en
...now has an "Ottawa Talks" section where people can pipe in. If you live in Ottawa and want to have your say, this is a good place to do it, though actual presence at the consultation meetings would carry more weight.
A good turnout last night; very heavily Glebe-laden unfortunately. Some of the downright stupid suggestions coming out of that meeting made me roll my eyes. (eg: make the park 70% privately owned for redevelopment - (ie: the "Kiss your park goodbye" plan).
I made my pitch to create a new stadium to bring it up to the new millennium standards: get rid of the bench seating and replace them with individual bucket style seats, increase legroom and maintain the current capacity at a minimum with the potential of creating east endzone seating with temporary west endzone seating to create a pseudo-bowl stadium. Add in corporate boxes etc.
I gave a lady from the city my written comments as well as some other supporting documents to help the Frank Clair stadium cause.
When one of the facilitators stated that the people at his table wanted Frank Clair stadium torn down, some applause followed. Following that, a chorus of loud BOOS went up at various tables - including mine
Come back soon Ottawa Rough Riders! There'll be a new stadium at Lansdowne waiting for you!
Were the guy wearing the jersey? I meant to go say hello to that guy but I had a bus to catch.
I also couldn't recall whether you'd said you'd attend so I wasn't sure if it was you. It's not like Tony had only one fan.
I was at table five and the youngest by about two decades until a fellow football fan showed up. It looked like an uphill battle until then but I was glad to see that it wasn't "majority rules". In other words, even if you were the only pro-stadium person, you still got counted. That was the case at our table anyway.
I was just reading that the U of O is looking at possibly building a new 10,000 seat stadium for the Gee Gees. This article mentions the dubious situation of FCS as well. Interesting.
Whatever help I can be CRF, I am at your service day and night in the betterment and advancement of the sport of gridiron football at all levels in our nations capital! You can count on me!
It actually sounds like the stadium is very much included now. The way the site is set up, it says something like “Guiding Principle: Retain and enhance Frank Clair stadium”.
It’s no longer asking whether or not we should, but seems to be more directed towards determining how to go about it. The whole thing ends this weekend so we should have a clearer picture soon.
now to focus on owners. how about the guy who owns the senators? there must be a few millionaires in the nations capital with 50-100 million kicking around.
They have to knock the south lower deck. if they’re going to do that then, they can’t very well leave the upper deck up, so I gather than comes down too. It was only built a few years later so it wouldn’t be long until it started to show trouble of its own.
I’m not sure about the north side. I suspect they’d be rebuilt to match the south, and maybe they’d have some endzone seats to connect the two (Eastside sucks!!).
As far as the owners go, the most likely bunch right now are…
Lansdowne Park is poorly managed now and crying out for capital investment the city can’t afford, (Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff) Hunt says. He argues that his partners, Minto’s Robert Greenberg, William Shenkman of Shenkman Corp. and John Ruddy of Trinity Development Group, have the money and experience to make the most of the unique site on the Rideau Canal.
…but first they have to win the Design Competition. They have the mayor’s support.
Even if they didn’t win, it appears as though the stadium will be a requirement of any design which might help draw more potential owners. These are local guys though, so they may be willing to throw in either way.
We’ll see. The first step is almost done (making the stadiuma requirement).
Things are looking good for the stadium. Here's hoping they knock down the southside entirely and rebuild the stadium to meet 21st century standards . I'd like to see a complete bowl or at least a 3/4 bowl with temporary seating in the west endzone. It would be perfect for the CFL games as well as provide great acoustics for concerts.
2010 is probably more likely now. At least as far as taking the field goes. The announcement might only come in '09 but this whole process is epected to take most of the calendar year. :?
The Phase II report has now been posted on the Design Lansdowne website. Given the public consultations and the online discussion forum, it appears that the Frank Clair Stadium issue was the most active topic. It appears that the majority of Ottawans favour keeping the stadium at Lansdowne and refurbishing it.
Given that the city 'may' remove the Frank Clair Stadium from the overall Lansdowne design project, has anyone heard what particular route they will be going with the stadium? Will there be any public input on it?
. I'd like to see a complete bowl or at least a 3/4 bowl with temporary seating in the west endzone. It would be perfect for the CFL games as well as provide great acoustics for concerts.