Quote:
Originally Posted by Migs
Really? The BC Lions did basically the same thing, build temporarily until the new project is done, which will be 2016 by all reports. Also your comments about there being no public funds is complete nonesense and without validity.
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The BC Lions did not spend $14 million for a temporary stadium. The public entity that runs BC Place spent that money for both the Lions and the Whitecaps while BC Place was under renovation (it was probably part of their $560+ million renovation budget). Obviously Vancouver can afford a lot more than Regina, and they could easily pay for a $14 million temporary solution while they were working on their renovation. Vancouver also had no problem coming up with the funding for their renovation.
Regina has been trying since March or 2010 to put together some sort of public private funding package for the new stadium with no success. Expecting new stadium construction to start in 2013 and finish by 2016 is ludicrous, especially since we don't have a design, we don't have funding and we will no longer have our main cheerleader in Mayor Fiacco. This "temporary" renovation offers the Riders a good solution for the Grey Cup and it helps out until Regina ever gets its stadium project off the ground. Who cares if we will still be using it 6 years from now. I am glad (and pleasantly surprised) to see them invest the money because it should be good for the Riders. They should have done something like this years ago.