MONTREAL STADIUM DONE - WHO IS NEXT?

I know most of us thought this was already a done deal, but I guess not everyone was officially in. I am not sure which level of government finally approved the stadium funding.
The news was just announced and supposedly the renos will be completed for 2010.
Now it's over to Winnipeg, Regina, Ottawa and Hamilton. Any bets who of these will be the first to put a shovel in the ground?

[url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/Sports/Expansion+Molson+Stadium+okayed/1367674/story.html]http://www.montrealgazette.com/Sports/E ... story.html[/url]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

You scared the heck outta me, I thought you meant “done” as in “done, finished, ain’t gonna happen!”

I was gonna write down the order that I thought we’d hear about the other stadium projects, but i just had a creeping case of superstition and decided not to jinx it.

““This investment is the proof that our administration and the government of Quebec appreciate and support the development of Montreal’s professional sports teams because they are ambassadors of our city,””

There certainly are some other cities that could learn from this. Not that I expect some of them to. When a city simply doesn’t want growth, and doesn’t care how the rest of the country views their village, no amount of good examples will help persuade.

Awesome, great news!! Personally I'm hoping Ottawa will be next ... them and Winnipeg seem to be making the biggest pushes.

How many more seats are they adding ?
You can't compare renos to building a brand new state of the art football stadium. Like Winnipeg and maybe Regina are talking about.

Nice job Montreal and government of Quebec (ok, I take back everything about the Plains of Abraham thingy :wink: , well, sort of) ! I was afraid like dmont about "done".

Reno's Kasps as in reno's to Lambeau field are equally as good as a new stadium, or can be equally as good. Believe me, the Pack knew what they were doing there, it all depends on stadium location etc.

I agree ,it's still great news and any improvement to Molson stadium is positive. How much money is being committed by Gov.

21 million from 3 layers and 4 millions from Mr. Wettenhaul himself (approximate)
Not a new stadium but not chump change and the University still owns the stadium for its own use the other 350 days a year.

It would be nice if the people of Quebec City were to surprise us and with the recent infastructure money alloted, that they would announce similar major renos at the U of Laval.
I still believe the best rivalry of new teams would be QC-Als, just like the old days of Nords-Habs.
I'm dreaming!!!!!!

Very good news!!!

every offseason, i hope NEXT year is the year with new stadiums or expansion....and it gets delayed every time...but atleast i know this is the LAST season of stagnation....2010 will have a bigger stadium in montreal, and hopefuly the ottawa renegades back in the league.

2011 will hopefuly see the bombers playing in a new stadium.
2013, the ticats new home.

Don’t be too hard on your little village… I’m sure San Leandro will eventually build something. :lol:

Coût de cette deuxième phase: 29 355 000$. Le gouvernement provincial accorde une aide de 19 331 065$ à l'Institution royale pour l'avancement des sciences de l'Université McGill, la Ville de Montréal avait déjà accepté de verser quatre millions, et le propriétaire des Alouettes, Bob Wetenhall, investira un peu plus de six millions de sa poche.

La vice-première ministre et ministre des Affaires municipales, Nathalie Normandeau, et le ministre responsable de la région de Montréal, Raymond Bachand, représentaient le gouvernement de Jean Charest, hier.

Mme Normandeau a souligné trois facteurs qui avaient incité le gouvernement à donner son aval au projet : le caractère historique du stade Percival-Molson, la volonté du gouvernement d’améliorer la qualité des infrastructures de la métropole et la popularité grandissante du football dans la province. Mme Normandeau avait même des chiffres pour appuyer ce troisième point, notant que le nombre d’équipes amateures au Québec était passé de 150 en 2000 à 500 en 2007.

«Il est prouvé que 80% des jeunes qui pratiquent le football réussissent leurs études et adhèrent à de saines habitudes de vie, et je pense que les joueurs des Alouettes en sont des témoins vivants», a dit Mme Normandeau.

«Si à chaque année nous réussissons à convaincre 100, 200 ou 300 jeunes garçons à poursuivre leurs études en pratiquant le football et en leur donnant peut-être l’espoir, qu’un jour, ils auront le privilège de porter le chandail des Alouettes, je crois sincèrement qu’en tant que société, on aura réalisé quelque chose de grand, de très grand», a poursuivi Mme Normandeau.


Specific breakdown of the money

Province 19 355 000.00 City 4 000 000.00 Dr. Wettenhaul 6 000.000
Some really interesting notes from that article. Numbers of amateur teams in quebec is now over 500 from the 150 that existed in 1997.
That the many Quebecers playing in the CFL today are living proof that football makes remarkable individuals If every year hundreds of young men continue their higher education by playing football, Quebec socitety is accomplishing something great, really great.
I wish other parts of the country would see it that way. Got to hand it to Quebec, they support their youth better then any other province in the country. It takes vision to realise that a pro franchise is a big part of that.

This announcement had me thinking a bit about some history of football at McGill and their games agains't Harvard back in the 1880's that were crucial to the game of football as we now see played in North America. From the McGill News:

McGill and the Birth of Football

[i]McGill ArchivesEdward Percy, BSc'49, MDCM'51, MSc'54, DipSurg'57, and Hugh Brodie, BSc'49, MDCM'51, were physicians for McGill's Department of Athletics in the '50s, '60s and '70s. Together they wrote this short history of intercollegiate football, illuminating McGill's role in the evolution of the game, which appeared in a 1982 edition of the News.

Having allegedly evolved during the Danish occupation of England when belligerent Anglo-Saxons kicked Viking skulls from village to village, football of an only slightly less bellicose sort was imported to the New World by 17th- and 18th-century colonists. In 1840, a reporter wrote of a Yale University game: "If the truth were told, the game would make the same impression on the public mind as a bullfight. Boys and young men knocked each other down and tore off each others' clothing. Eyes were bunged, faces blackened, much blood was spilt and shirts and coats were torn to rags."

By 1860 the game was abolished in many American schools, but in 1862 Gerritt Smith Hiller organized a group at Yale to play again, using rules that were a reasonably close imitation of soccer. Still, the game was often more an excuse to beat up freshmen than anything else.

In 1871 Harvard University started to play a variation known as the "Boston Game." This allowed a player to pick up the ball and run with it if he were chased, varying from the game that had been prohibited in 1840.

In the fall of 1873 Yale invited Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers to a convention in New York to draw up a set of rules for an intercollegiate football association. Harvard shunned the meeting because the proposed association would not consider the rules of the Boston Game. It nevertheless challenged Yale to a game in 1874. Yale, however, played a game resembling soccer and thus declined because of the different rules. Harvard captain Henry Grant was anxious for his football team to engage in competition and had heard that a similar game was played at McGill University. Consequently, he contacted the captain of the McGill team, David Roger, and invited them to play two games in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 13 and 14, 1874. These were to be the first real football games.

Until this time, Harvard had been playing a game that today would be considered very similar to what we call soccer football. McGill arrived in Cambridge several days prior to the game and practised each day. The Harvard team was surprised when the McGill players kicked the ball and subsequently ran with it under their arms. The Harvard captain pointed out politely that this violated a basic rule of American football. The McGill captain replied that it did not violate any rule of the Canadian game. When asked "What game do you play?" Roger replied, "Rugby." They then managed to agree to play the forthcoming games with half-Canadian, half-American rules.

The following day a notice appeared in the Harvard University paper: "The McGill University Football Club will meet the Harvard Football Club on Wednesday and Thursday, May 13th and 14th. The game probably will be called at 3 o'clock. Admittance 50 cents. The proceeds will be donated to the entertainment of our visitors from Montreal."

Early in the first half, the Harvard team so enjoyed running with the ball that they agreed to play the remainder of the game with Canadian rules, which stipulated that the ball could be picked up and carried. Harvard normally played with 15 players, but McGill could only field 11 athletes (the number fielded in the present game of American football). The first game was won by Harvard 3 to 0 and the game played on the following day ended in a scoreless tie. Harvard liked the McGill game so much that it adopted the downs as well as field goals. These rule changes, which included tackling, led inevitably to the physical contact of our present-day collision sport. In the fall of 1875, Harvard challenged Yale to a match and suggested the use of a set of rules combining soccer and rugby, such as Harvard had learned from its Canadian rival the previous year.

The game was eventually played under a combination of both soccer and rugby rules, but Yale apparently won the concession of using a round, rather than oval, football. Harvard's triumph over Yale at this so-called "concessionary game" was witnessed by a sis-boom-bah cheering crowd of 2,000 spectators bedecked in coloured shirts, stockings and knee breeches.

Harvard went on to play McGill again in Cambridge and in Montreal in 1876, '77, '79 and '82. Winning all the games, they retreated south of the border for some time. Then, on October 19, 1974, McGill made its comeback. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the historic McGill-Harvard "American" football game, the McGill rugby team (which most closely resembles the team that participated in the original matches) challenged Harvard, beating them 6 to 3. This centennial game led to an annual return match between the Harvard and McGill rugby teams in a spirit that is reminiscent of those first college games.[/i]

-www.mcgill.ca/news/2005/summer/epilogue/

Here are a few pics from the Als site

http://en.montrealalouettes.com/uploads/assets//MTLFR/PMS/SouthEntrance-large.jpg

http://en.montrealalouettes.com/uploads/assets//MTLFR/PMS/SouthStands-large.jpg

http://en.montrealalouettes.com/uploads/assets//MTLFR/PMS/NEStands-large.jpg

It's gonna be a cute little stadium. With the pitch, it looks like everyone is fairly close to the field.

Well done.

Looks beautiful.
My only question is why no chair seats?

This is GREAT news. Seems like a long time coming, I was beginning to think it would never happen. Congratulations to all involved with making this a reality. Hopefully this is just the first in a string of upcoming announcements involving stadiums in this country.

costs more.
main thing is, they will be able to pack 25,000 in there …and increase the league attendance average.

I'm sure the owner and fans will both be quite happy when its done. More seats mean fewer get turned away (isn't every single game sold out?) and more money for the owner. Does anybody know how much the increase in attendance will help the city?

I think they are around 90 consecutive sellouts