1. Make no mistake, this isn’t about urban renewal, it’s about saving face for Vic Toews. For over a year, Toews held firm that funding a football stadium wasn’t a priority of the federal government. Now that he’s changed his mind, he needed some major change in the proposal to justify his decision. This is what led to a different location.
2. Toews has had a rough ride of it lately, between his well-publicized divorce, rumours of an illegitimate child, and the whole “will he be appointed a judge?” fiasco. He has also had to deal with some people from his own party going offside on the stadium issue, including MP Rod Bruinooge and Winnipeg South Centre candidate Trevor Kennerd. What better way to distract people from all that negative attention, than by getting behind a mega-project and labeling yourself a fan of urban renewal?
3. I can’t see any possible way that land next to the Convention Centre would work. Something the size of the existing stadium would require blocking off Carlton for sure, possibly Hargrave and Edmonton too, and the demolition of buildings on Broadway (effectively ruining the Broadway streetscape).
4. I’ve had a chance to look at the site drawing in the Freep, which confirms what I thought in looking at Google Earth: a stadium in Point Douglas would be a very, very tight squeeze. From a space perspective, it’s no wonder they’re talking about downsizing to 25,000 seats. However, from a business perspective this makes absolutely no sense, as the team often draws more than 25,000 for it’s summer and early fall games. I also can’t see any easy way to expand the facility for future Grey Cups, which would require another 15,000 seats.
5. Traffic would be complete chaos in Point Douglas. I wouldn’t even think of parking anywhere near the stadium. Then again, maybe that’s the plan.
6. The use of tax increment financing for this project is a smoke screen. Governments have frequently made tax concessions for major projects in the past, and there’s no reason why they couldn’t do the same for a Polo Park stadium as opposed to a Point Douglas stadium.
7. What becomes of the existing stadium property in this new deal? A comment in this Sun story makes me suspicious: “The source said the new proposal…would see the existing Canad Inns Stadium torn down and the land sold to an undisclosed developer. The source said that sale would be key to the project.” So does this mean that David Asper will get a sweetheart deal on a massive swath of prime retail land at Polo Park? Remember, all throughout this process Asper has argued that the retail component was crucial to the operational success of the stadium.
8. Granted, the peninsula of Point Douglas is a bit of an embarrassment right now, but can’t we imagine any better use for this land than a hulking stadium that’s used a handful of times each year and several thousand parking spaces? Is this really creative thinking?
9. If you’re going to build this thing along the river anyway, then why not throw a public dock facility into your pretty little architectural renderings? Charge the same fee as you would for your parkade, and provide some basic level of security. It won’t do much to alleviate the traffic problem, but it would look kinda cool.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: asper stadium, Vic toews
The Polo Park land belongs to the City of Winnipeg. If it is to be sold then it should be offered to the public and the highest bidder can have it.
This deal gets worse as time goes on.
Now that we know 80 million tax dollars are at stake, perhaps an open bid can be tendered by the City/Province/Federal stating this amount is part of the tender.
As it is, you have a potential conflict of interest with the Blue Bomber board. In fact the whole board should be replaced for their inability to take advantage of the deal they have with the City. Land leased for a buck a year. They’ve fumbled the ball from stating the facility was WORLD CLASS to hyperinflating the TOWER report ( basically telling Winnipeg, these engineers are useless ). Lets not forget, for 2007, the Bombers had an expense line of 250K or so for “stadium Development fees “. Are you kidding me, are we that gullible. Damn, if they were handing out 250K for Photoshops, I’da submitted a few renderings.
There are alternatives but everyone is looking or the easy way out.
25,000 seat, pure bullshit, and I don’t really care how good your Photoshops or AutoCad ’s look.
Check out Waverley West for who the undisclosed developer could eventually be. I think he called it Canterbury.
After thinking about this for a day, the thing that boggles me most, is the downsizing to 25 000.
We made our arena small, and we have to live with it for several decades. Now they’re talking about making our stadium small, which we would have to live with for the next several decades.
They’re thinking so big on this project in every way, except for capacity. The stadium should be a minimum of 30 000. Just like the arena should have been 18 000 minimum.
Just a quick tip off to those that are interested, yesterday talking to an MP at a event, they mentioned that the other site Toews is very open to but did not yet mention due to some logisitics was the current site of the Canada Post building downtown on Graham avenue.
At the very least it’s bigger than the parking lot south of the Convention Centre. Also since this site is being abandoned by the Posties it would at least be nice to know someting was going there.
I’ve never been a big fan of government funding for a Stadium, given that you only get 11 home dates for the anchor tenant during a fun Winnipeg summer vs 45 dates for a hockey arena during a boring Winnipeg winter. But anyone over 6ft knows the present stadium was designed back when people were sickly and short.
I like the Convention Centre and Point Douglas site proposals from an environmental perspective. That’s how you fight urban sprawl, by building amneties where they are easily accesible, downtown. If the Point Douglas proposal will raise property values in the area, they gotta build it there. Doing so would help develop the underutilized river corridor between the Louise Bridge and the Forks.
25,000 seats. There is no way it should be that small. 35,000 seats minimun. We have to think about future growth , plus room for Grey Cup games.
“So does this mean that David Asper will get a sweetheart deal on a massive swath of prime retail land at Polo Park”
Yes, pretty much. This whole thing is a crime in progress.
We have no say in where it’s built… I just want to see it get done. Winnipeg’s deserved a new stadium for about 20 years. We deserve an NHL franchise but that’s another rant for another day.
So why do we have to give the team away and the land in order to get a new stadium ? What kind of outfit are the current board of the bombers running ? Can’t they put together a business plan and secure funding and keep it community owned ?