Blue Bomber CFO Jim Bell was on the CJOB Sports Show the other night talking about the team’s “unexpected” return to Canad Inns Stadium for its pre-season game. Bell said he wanted to come on the air so the team could be “completely open and transparent” with fans about what was going on with the stadium development. That sounds great, but can you honestly say you’re being open, transparent or honest when…
- Just one month ago, your new CEO said: ”We will not play a game in the old stadium. We have a plan and we’re sticking to it. We plan to play a pre-season game at Investors Group Field and we’ll work with the challenges that result with not having some of the aesthetics done. There’s no chance of us returning to the old stadium.”
- Your response to fan complaints about seat allocation process for the new stadium is to not respond at all.
- When asked what the cost will be to re-open Canad Inns Stadium, you refuse to answer and say that information will be released in 2013.
Seriously Jim, this is what you call transparency? No one is asking for a copy of the playbook here, we (fans and taxpayers) would just like a little better sense of what’s going on. The more games you play, the more I think I should be scoping out parking spaces at Polo Park for the home opener.
[And kudos to the Freep's Adam Wazny for his reporting on all this nonsense.]
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On the subject of that pre-season game, Bell indicated to the Freep that one of the costs the club faces is reconnecting/rehabbing plumbing services for the various concession stands. If the old stadium will truly only be used for one game, why bother with this expense? Why not simply invite food vendors — hot dog carts, the taco truck, the spring roll truck, Lovey’s — in to provide service instead? The food would be better, and if the team charged each vendor a small fee it could minimize its financial loss for this game.
