Stadium lost to... York U... and the ARGOS?!?!

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According to Perkins, the alternative site... and tenant... have been chosen:

Perkins: York U will grab Pan Am stadium if Hamilton dithers

[url=http://www.thestar.com/sports/panamgames/article/821188--perkins-york-u-will-grab-pan-am-stadium-if-hamilton-dithers]http://www.thestar.com/sports/panamgame ... on-dithers[/url]

By Dave Perkins
Sports Columnist

[i]If the two sides in the Hamilton stadium standoff can’t get their act together, 2015 Pan Am Games organizers will pull the plug and build the new facility at York University.

The Toronto Argonauts would be the long-term tenants of a new 25,000-seat stadium to hold Pan Am track and field events, plans for which are moving ahead as the alternative if Hamilton stalls out. Allegedly, the subway will be extended to York by 2015. Switching the Pan Am’s marquee events there would be an impetus to finish a transit job on time. For once.

Pan Am organizers, already facing numerous problems due to short-sighted and agenda-driven venue locations, say privately they won’t allow Hamilton’s indecision on a stadium site to screw up the Games. The event, more than three times the size of an Olympic Winter Games, already is only five years away and too many wheels are spinning.

“We don’t want to be held hostage by a team that plays eight games a year at home,’’ one member of the host committee said, not for attribution.

The city of Hamilton and the Tiger-Cats, who have deemed unacceptable Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger’s proposed location in the West Harbour, are using a $600-an-hour facilitator to try to solve the problem. They have a July 8 deadline and at that price, what’s the hurry?

York was in the running several years ago for a combined soccer/football stadium, the one later built soccer-only at the CNE in order to enrich Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. With another $32 million from each of the federal and provincial governments earmarked for the 2015 stadium, York is anxious not to miss the boat again. Such a stadium, one that would come with warm-up facilities, would solidify York as one of Canada’s premier athletic universities. Travel times for track athletes from the Ataratiri athletes’ village wouldn’t be ideal, but would be better than training to Hamilton.

David Braley, owner of the Argonauts, initially was a member of the Pan Am Games board, creating an obvious conflict of interest with government millions being poured into a stadium designed to be home to one or possibly two Canadian Football League teams. However, when Braley recently was named a senator, he became ineligible for the board and resigned; Pan Am committee bylaws specifically prevent elected officials or senators from serving.

The federal government, which controls five of the 13 spots on the Pan Am board, is considering Braley’s replacement and federal sports minister Gary Lunn, who makes the call, should be naming someone with a Toronto amateur sports background to replace Braley. The board is woefully short on sports representation, perhaps one reason the venue locales are such a mess. (Many sports, from swimming to track and field, rowing and paddling and bicycling, are upset about their location in relation to the athletes’ village; travel times are hours in some cases.)

The board as comprised under chair Roger Garland now features three representatives from Quebec, two from Vancouver, one from Ottawa and one from Calgary; it’s obviously light on reflecting the area that will actually play host to the $2 billion event. The Quebec representation is led by Marcel Aubut, head of the Canadian Olympic Committee, who has openly stated his interest in landing an Olympic Winter Games for Quebec City in 2022. As such, there are some in the amateur sports community who wonder whether Toronto screwing up the Pan Ams would thereby eliminate itself permanently as a potential Olympic Summer Games host city. Such a chain of events certainly wouldn’t hurt a Quebec 2022 bid.

It’s an excellent conspiracy theory, if you’re in the mood for one.[/i]

Ok I read the article and it does not surprise me, but it says a 25,000 seat stadium. We get a 15,000 seat stadium! I thought the Argos were broke? Is Braley willing to put up the cash or are we being short changed? The article raises a lot of questions that need answering. Looks like we are stuck with IWS for a long time.

As long as we elect clowns like Clark, Merulla, Eisenberger and the rest of the city hall jokers, this city will continue to spin its wheels with no growth. Same old, same old.

:roll:

Could very well happen - it would be great news for the Argos but disaster for Hamilton.
Two more seasons at IWS and Bob moves the Ticats to that shiny new stadium on the Rideau Canal.

If the cats lose out on this deal the soul responsibility will be with the Mayor and the city council for fouling this deal up from the get go.

Interesting story, but it leaves one big question mark: who on earth is going to cough up to replace the $60M that Hamilton was contributing to the stadium if it goes to York U?

red24

My guess is some combination of province (since they need to get the stadium issue settled quickly), university, city, and Braley.

If they build on the north side of downsview park, which will be only one subway stop from York, they would also be on a GO train line and have enough room to leverage more private money by developing some commercial/entertainment component around the stadium.

What ? You think the city of Toronto can’t write that :roll:

If it comes to that, it will be entertaining to see them float the idea in an election year, that’s for sure!!
red24

dude give it up they are not moving to (Ive lost 2 already but want another) Ottawa

Don’t bet on it not happening. Our beloved Caretaker may be a Hammer town boy at heart, but as a businessman the bottom line takes priority. The politicans are once again acting in their own personal vested interests. After the Pan Am games are over there will be one primary tenant. What landlord in their right mind would build a new property somewhere the one and only tenant you’ve ever had doesn’t want it?

Province is already contributing. Can’t imagine where York will get the money, I work at a University and things are tight. Interesting point about Downsview Park though. Would be hard to extract money from York to build there I imagine.
red24

From the Dave Perkins article:

"David Braley, owner of the Argonauts, initially was a member of the Pan Am Games board, creating an obvious conflict of interest with government millions being poured into a stadium designed to be home to one or possibly two Canadian Football League teams. However, when Braley recently was named a senator, he became ineligible for the board and resigned; Pan Am committee bylaws specifically prevent elected officials or senators from serving.The federal government, which controls five of the 13 spots on the Pan Am board, is considering Braley’s replacement........etc"

 How's this for those of us who like conspiracy theories:

 - the Feds can appoint 5 Pan-Am committee members
 - Braley later becomes the owner of two CFL teams
 - Braley is then in a conflict of interest
 - Braley is then appointed by the Feds to the Senate and leaves the Pan-Am Committee
 - Hamilton is in danger of scuppering the Pan-Am stadium plans
 - the way is now clear, without Braley on the committee, to move the stadium to where else???  Toronto!!!!

   Braley gets two pay-offs. A Senate seat and a new stadium. Brilliant moves by the Feds.

The big dogs are playing this stadium issue like a violin. Meanwhile some people here are still arguing about the Confederation Park site.
Stay tuned. :wink:

Yes, province is already contributing its original $32M, but this is the province’s show and they’ve received the responisiblity and authorization to cover all cost overruns. Plus a recent article said Eisenberger was working on getting more provincial money into the waterfront project in order to bring the Ticats on board.

York was prepared to contribute toward the original new York stadium back in 2004. It’s been a while, so maybe not too much has happened to change that.

I bet York would pay something if they ended up owning that piece of downsview and the new infrastructure on it. The land is currently owned by the federal government. If that land became endowed to the university, and Braley and a private developer were willing to provide a big chunk of money in exchange for a 30yr renewable lease, then the university’s endowment would become a lot larger if the project went through. Something they would certainly look at.

Let's face the facts, HOSTCO is not going to waste time on Hamilton if it looks like a dead end, at this point, the clock is ticking and fast. I could even say that the province will come up with the $60 mill, and more, due to the organizational problems with the city of Hamilton and how they have dealt with this project.

Interesting possibilities. The one that intrigues me the most is the idea of the Federal Gov’t endowing government land to build a stadium for a football team owned by a sitting senator, who, incidentally is the Conservative Party’s single largest campaign contributor. Hmmm. :oops:

Also, if the province is willing to pony up more cash, that could make a deal between the City of Hamilton and the Ticats more probable.
red24

Doc: No it won’t.
The biggest responsibility will be on the shoulders of the Pan-Am Committee who thought the Tiger-Cats would have called in the moving vans to start packing for a move to the West Harbour as soon as the announcement was made that Hamilton would get a stadium.
And because they demanded 50 million from the Tiger-Cats and others so they could have the honour of renting the place for CFL games.
Dave Perkins was right when he said in his article:
" Pan Am organizers, already facing numerous problems due to short-sighted and agenda-driven venue locations…etc"
To blame the city for this mess is being short-sighted. They are not without blame either but they were forced into being the water boy for the Pan-Am Committee.
If the stadium does end up at York…I can see the post-mortem thread on here going for at least 100 pages. :lol:

The way I picture it, the federal government would be endowing land to a public university. Then the university would build a 25-30k seat stadium and surrounding infrastructure to support its own CIS football program. It would pay for all this by signing a 30yr lease agreement with the private sector, who would manage all the properties and have some kind of profit-sharing agreement with their owner (see the new Winnipeg Stadium, BMO Field, and the proposed Lansdowne Partnership Plan in Ottawa).

Not so wild when you consider that the federal government has been looking to divest itself of much of Lansdowne, and to make that particular part of downsview into a mixed-use commercial and retail sector: http://www.downsviewpark.ca/eng/illustrations.shtml , http://www.downsviewpark.ca/media/PDPCo … _FINAL.pdf .

See? It’s all about framing :slight_smile:

But in the end I agree with you. The city of Hamilton and the Ticats will come to an agreement on some location, but the agreement will be contingent on the province making up the difference in the numbers, which it will do since it won’t want to risk rolling the dice on the York U option.

If the stadium does end up at York...I can see the post-mortem thread on here going for at least 100 pages.

No post-mortem talk from me after the initial shock is over that Hamilton lost the stadium. I still say if Toronto/Toronto area gets the stadium rather than Hamilton regardless of how that affects the Tiger-Cats, the CFL is better off as a league. Hamilton, to me, is not that important to the league compared with the Argonauts.

dmont wrote:

"The way I picture it, the federal government would be endowing land to a public university. Then the university would build a 25-30k seat stadium and surrounding infrastructure to support its own CIS football program. It would pay for all this by signing a 30yr lease agreement with the private sector, who would manage all the properties and have some kind of profit-sharing agreement with their owner (see the new Winnipeg Stadium, BMO Field, and the proposed Lansdowne Partnership Plan in Ottawa).

Not so wild when you consider that the federal government has been looking to divest itself of much of Lansdowne, and to make that particular part of downsview into a mixed-use commercial and retail sector: http://www.downsviewpark.ca/eng/illustrations.shtml , http://www.downsviewpark.ca/media/PDPCo ... _FINAL.pdf .

See? It's all about framing :slight_smile:

But in the end I agree with you. The city of Hamilton and the Ticats will come to an agreement on some location, but the agreement will be contingent on the province making up the difference in the numbers, which it will do since it won't want to risk rolling the dice on the York U option."

dmont: Excellent post. Thanks.