Tim Hortons Field | 40m | ? | Complete
 

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...namstadium.jpg

We've been awarded the 2015 Pan Am Games and we're getting a new stadium. Suppose to be built by 2014.

http://www.thespec.com/videogallery/668036
At 2:49 you can see the stadium.

It's going to look good with a new stadium in that location. Lets hope they add the upper deck to the other side with the initial construction and not wait to add it later.

Still have to soothe the naysayers on such a location for a new stadium, as per the letter to the Spec in yesterday's paper:

http://thespec.com/Opinions/Letterto...article/666873

Many negatives in putting stadium by bayfront

David Weir
The Hamilton Spectator
Caledonia
(Nov 5, 2009)
Re: 'Say goodbye to Ivor Wynne' (Editorial, Nov. 2)

The supposed visionary leaders of the City of Hamilton have their heads in the sand as usual.

Putting the new stadium down by the bayfront would have one positive -- it would look beautiful. Everything else would be negative:

* No parking

* Difficulty for people coming from out of town -- no nearby highway access

* Noise concerns

* No alternate uses for the stadium

* Gridlock leaving the games

Hamilton already owns the land by the airport, where all the negatives would turn into positives. It would also be a beautiful spot for a multi-use stadium with plenty of room for future expansion.

Yah... put it by the airport. Great idea.

LOL... once you have the stadium built what lateral expansion are you banking on?

I hope that this stadium holds at least 30K or so and does not get built on the cheap.

Are you serious? Pretty much all the newer stadiums are in or near downtown areas. They learned from the mistakes of suburban stadiums. Here in Ottawa, many people think it was a huge mistake to put Scotiabank Place out in Kanata.

To be fair, there is generally a huge difference between an open-air football stadium and an enclosed hockey arena --- I believe that there is a much stronger case for placing an arena in a downtown area.

I know there's a big difference between and arena and stadium, it's just an example from the same province. I don't follow football, but I believe all the newish baseball stadiums (past 10-15 years) are in downtown areas, most have skyline views in the outfield.

Why? Why should we have to waste our time 'soothing' Hamilton haters? Aren't they grown up enough to be responsible for their own thoughts and feelings? Our fruitless efforts to 'soothe' the suburbs are one of the main things holding this city back from its full potential. Amalgamation is a fait accompli. If they can't get over it and start working for the common good that's their problem, not ours. Enough with the hand holding.

I agree, finally the waterfront will start to look like an urban water of a city of half a million.

Also that stadium looks wonky. I hope it's matched with an upper deck on the west side.

Question is that rendering for 15,000 seats?

^ Yes, 15,000 seats. Yesterday during the celelbration Mayor Fred was standing in front of a 30,000 stadium rendering, two upper decks.

awesome
I got a bit excited so I did a logo

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...g?t=1257612664

Great opportunity to start balancing out the view from the Skyway.

I don't think it will be very visible from the Skyway.

That rendering is missing lighting

Unfortunately, this won't really balance the view from the skyway as you won't see it from there. Its almost 5 miles away, and there will be a bunch of stuff in line of sight.

The 'artist rendering' of the stadium is also done from a carefully chosen perspective -- if you were to look another 5-10 degrees to the right, you would see all the industry (US Steel / Arcelor Mittal) you see from the Skyway - just from a different angle. The people sitting in the upper deck on the left side of the stadium will have a great view of the stacks and the chimney flames at night!! Plus train enthusiasts will enjoy overlooking the CN tracks and storage yard (about 20 sets of tracks run through there between the Stadium site and the harbour).

Oh yeah - they also better hire someone to clean the seats before every event ... oily soot and coal dust fallout from the industrial chimneys and sites coat this area every time there is an East wind. I have a boat roughly 1km east of here, and it is not uncommon to wash the boat on saturday morning, and have it covered in a film of grime again by saturday night.

A new stadium on the waterfront is easily accessible by the highway. As far as parking goes... look at the Rogers Centre - people typically park away from the centre and walk... this isn't a problem for them, why would it be a problem in this case? We have plenty of parking lots (too many!) downtown. The Spec article is totally off base.

Your logo isn't showing.

I actually like the way the stadium looks with only one upper deck. I'm sure it'll look good with two as well.

I agree though, the perspective of this rendering definitely purposely avoids the smoke stacks and industry. This area has so much potential to look incredible, but just like the view from the Skyway - the industrial side seems to always get in the way and quickly gives a more negative impression of the city.

Also consider myself not a fan of the Spec article. Plopping this stadium in the middle of nowhere doesn't help this city at all. It's just more of the same mistakes that get made. We need to concentrate on the downtown and waterfront and build out from there. We need to stop spreading ourselves so thin and really try to make a specific place in the city top-notch.

Baseball stadia are also fairly different from football stadia because they get used for 81 regular season home games a year, while football teams play about a tenth of that.

I don't think the location is actually too bad. It is downtown-ish and right near Bayfront Park. Copps Coliseum is only about a five or ten minute walk away from it --- less than a kilometre, I believe.

I like Ron Lancaster Field at Lakeport Stadium.

Tiger Cats Say Sooner Is Better For New Stadium

Ken Mann
11/6/2009
http://www.900chml.com/Channels/Reg/...spx?ID=1162669

The president of the Hamilton Tiger Cats is sharing in the excitement.

Scott Mitchell says that the city is long overdue for some of the infrastructure projects, and he now looks forward to helping to execute the plan following confirmation that the Golden Horseshoe will host the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Mitchell also stresses that a new stadium will be much needed for the club's long term "viability and success".

There are suggestions that a new stadium could be built in as little as three years. Mitchell insists "the sooner the better", noting that "Ivor Wynne is a diminishing asset".

Tiger Cats owner Bob Young has verbally pledged to help pay the cost of building their new home.

No, I meant the idea of putting the stadium near the airport or anywhere where it's surrounded by nothing is a bad idea - which is what the Spec article is saying. I like the Waterfront idea as it's close enough to downtown and keeps things a lot tighter.

It seems all Hamiltonians ever care about is where they're going to park their car. The Spec article fails to mention that the stadium will be very accessible from GO and Via (when they're set up) - which is a plus to help draw people from out of town. I like the idea of potential outdoor summer concerts in this stadium (which is even more important to drawing people from outside the city by use of GO and Via). The stadium needs to be used for more than just Pan-Am and CFL - the more use it gets for different types of events, the better it is for rejuvenating the downtown and Waterfront area.

http://www.thespec.com/videogallery/668036
If you freeze at 3:25 you can see a surface parking lot north west of the stadium. Directly across the practice field.

what does that mean? look who's now a graphic designer critic


one of the stadiums telling feature are the overhangs.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...g?t=1257619600


http://www.theaircanadacentre.com/im...plate/logo.gif

http://www.seeklogo.com/images/R/Rog...eklogo.com.gif

:haha:

Let me re-word it... your link isn't working (for me at least).... unless your logo is a red "x". ;)

I totally agree. This is the beauty of the downtown. Everything is within 1-2km from the centre of the city. From the bay front all the way to the base of the escarpment is only 3km.

They best not built this anywhere but the waterfront, if they do, I go from being a supporter of the Pan Am games for being a non supporter in a blink of an eye.

Tourism Hamilton, David Adames, is working on the business case for the stadium. The Ti Cats are waiting on this report before committing any funds for a 30,000 stadium.

The business case will probably come out in 2010. Right now they need to form the Pan Am committee and a new CEO.

How will this be different than Ivor Wynne?

It's only 3 or 4 blocks from Copps. Most of the properties from just North of York between Bay and Hess will be apart of the complex. That complex also includes the velodrome and numerous training fields.

25K seats would just be too small. Of the 54 regular season games played outside of Hamilton and Montreal (where capacity is only 20K), only six had attendances of less than 25K. The smallest crowd in the Western conference was 26,885.

Also, while the $150MM number that is being bandied about sounds like it would get the city something more substantial than BMO Field, it still sounds quite a bit on the light side ----the cost of the new retractable roof at BC Place alone will be literally more than triple that. A new stadium would likely be in use for many decades --- if this thing is going to get built, it should get built properly.

BMO Field cost $63 million for 20,000 stadium, it'll cost $102 million for 15,000 stadium.

As I posted before, here we go with the anti-waterfront locale for a stadium with another letter to the editor @ The Spec today. Some people just can't see the "vision" of what our waterfront could look like.

http://thespec.com/Opinions/Letterto...article/669179

Stadium would hurt our 'sick' downtown
Elizabeth Ward
The Hamilton Spectator
Hamilton
(Nov 9, 2009)
Re: 'A design charette for our downtown' (Opinion, Nov. 5)

I read with interest Thomas A. Beckett's proposal for the downtown core.

As someone who lives in the North End and walks through the core to work every day, I couldn't agree with him more. The core is "desperately sick," and there is no vision or political will to change things.

I consider myself a huge supporter of Hamilton, and I recognize as a city we have so much potential with our beautiful old buildings, access to green spaces and vibrant arts community, which has managed to thrive despite lack of support from our municipal politicians -- for example, the recent struggles of The Pearl Factory.

The city has thrown its support both politically and financially behind the Pan Am Games, but I question how this will really be beneficial to Hamilton in the long run. If we must host the Games, I agree with an earlier letter writer who suggested a stadium in the Mount Hope area would be more logical.

My vision of Hamilton is one where a downtown core is alive and thriving and has seamless access to a waterfront area that all Hamiltonians can enjoy, rather than one marred by a stadium of interest to only a few.

is it going to be 25k or 30k?

Stadium location
 

Stay tuned on this....

The waterfront location is NOT carved in stone. We will soon be hearing proposals put forth to council to locate the stadium where Sir John A Macdonald school currently exists.

The school could be rebuild at the Central Park location,along bay north, and this parcel of land ties in nicely with LRT, downtown nightlife, restaurants, copps etc...

The problem with the waterfront...is ...well water. The stadium would have to be build on massive pilings, to support it

These letters are pretty silly. Honestly, who is enjoying the current state of the Rheem building on the proposed stadium site other than urban explorers?

The waterfront would look pretty sweet with a stadium, but this other location wouldn't bother me. As long as it's downtown or close to it.

Just please let this idea of putting it near the airport or anywhere else in the boonies die already. At one point this city has to learn from it's own mistakes as well as others.

:yes: :yes: :yes:

Poll on thespec.com:

With the Pan Am decision in, the location of Hamilton's new stadium is stirring some controversy. Which of the three options do you prefer? Take the poll and click here to comment in Have Your Say
Near airport
Waterfront (Reem site) (sic)
Confederation Park area

Waterfront winning this race so far with 56.5% of votes. Airport 22.37% and Confederation Park 20.06%

lol
the Spec seriously spelt Rheem wrong?

what else is new??:haha:

QEW and 403 will have HOV lanes before 2015. All the athletes will be bussed into Hamilton along the HOV lanes. Lucky they'll enter Hamilton through the 403 and not through the Skyway Bridge.

Once they enter Hamilton from York they'll enter to James St to the stadium.

During the Games certain streets will be closed to cars. Much like the World Cycling Championships. I imagine York from Bay to James will be closed, probably will have events on the redeveloped York, and James St North will be closed.

From CHCH...........the business plan and recommendation will be presented to Council at February 2010. Tourism Hamilton preferred option is the West Harbourfront location and mostly importantly the Ti Cats also prefer the West Harbourfront location.

IMO the waterfront location has a much higher potential of doing good for the area and the city than anywhere else, including the SJAM property.

where did you hear of the SJAM proposal from paleale?

It's Councillor Bratina's idea for the John A McDonald High School.

Would SJAM site be able to accomodate a 30,000 seat stadim, velodrome and practice facility?? Looks kind of cramped. Have to admit that the transport links would be a little better at SJAM, I think. And with Copps across the street, this could be an elite athletic training centre in one neat package.

You'd be lucky to fit a stadium alone at McDonald's property.

I'm 100% for the West Harbourfront location. This is our greatest chance to do a massive brownfield cleanup.

And they haven't even outsourced the editing yet.

The $100MM+ certainly sounds better than the ~$60MM for BMO Field, but it still sounds less than substantial.

BMO Field is about as bare-bones a stadium as you can get ---- the stands are alumimum with super-cheap plastic seating. The stadium needs constant upkeep because the stomping of the fans causes nuts, bolts, other fasteners to come loose. I would like to think that Hamilton's main stadium for the next several decades would be much more impressive than that.

The West harbour location would be great. But if they are going to build something for the future, 25 or 30 thousand seats is just not big enough. They should be looking at something around 40,000 seats.

In Regina they are planning a dome stadium at a cost of 400-600 million dollars. I think I read something that said that would get them 45,000 seats.

I'm not saying we need a dome, but if they are going to build something that is going to be around for 50 years, don't chinze on it and build for the future.