Could a public-private partnership secure a CFL stadium?
JOSH HEALEY The Chronicle Herald January 4, 2018
Halifax may want to take some cues from Canada’s capital city
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part seven of a series on the latest attempt to bring a CFL team to Halifax.
PART 1: CFL in Halifax: A gamble with lots of field to cover
PART 2: Stadium talks dominates CFL expansion discussion
PART 3: Halifax CFL franchise would make football a coast-to-coast sports, says commissioner
PART 4: Would Halifax support pro football?
PART 5: Roughriders show that CFL fan support can be province-wide
PART 6: Retired CFL pros want to see Halifax team
PART 8: Stadium will make or break Halifax’s CFL bid
On Nov. 29, 2016, more than 40,000 crazed Canadian Football League fans took to the streets of Ottawa to celebrate their Redblacks winning the 104th Grey Cup.
The Grey Cup win was momentous, given that Ottawa had only rejoined the league in 2014.
But the win also represented the culmination of a project begun in 2007, including the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park and the 24,000-seat TD Place Stadium, the home of the Redblacks.
Roger Greenberg, the executive chairman and managing partner of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), said that the task of attracting a CFL team can be all-consuming.
“I could talk about it for hours. This has taken over a big chunk of my life for the last eight or nine years,” he said. “You have to have solid local ownership that is committed to sticking it through.”
And as it’s the most recent expansion in the CFL, there is an opportunity for Halifax to learn from Ottawa’s complicated return to the football world.
No easy task
Greenberg explained that when the idea of bringing a CFL team back to Ottawa was first discussed in 2007, there were a number of setbacks.
Like Halifax, the need for a stadium was the talk of the town.
The idea was that Ottawa, which had previously fielded CFL teams, would play at the old Frank Clair Stadium but it became apparent that the building was in poor shape.
“That was what really led to a very, very different process than what we had anticipated at the outset,” said Greenberg.
This new route involved a joint venture between OSEG and the City of Ottawa and included a complete redevelopment of the 40-acre Lansdowne Park area.
The project, dubbed the Lansdowne Partnership Plan (LPP), encompassed the construction of a football stadium, upgraded sports facilities for soccer and hockey, 360,000 square feet of retail space and another 100,000 square feet of office space.
Greenberg noted that there was some opposition to the project, such as an organization called the Friends of Lansdowne.
Like Halifax, those critical of LPP asked why the city should spend money on a sports facility when the money could be spent on other infrastructure.
“I think a balanced city needs to have priorities but also needs to have a balance of economic opportunities,” said Greenberg when asked how cities should prioritize expenditures.
“Lansdowne has been a huge economic driver for the city of Ottawa, creating many jobs.”
Has the project boosted the local economy?
A recent report from the City of Ottawa’s finance and economic development committee has shown the LPP has generated an increase of visitors and business to the area.
In 2016, 3.4 million people visited Lansdowne, a 41-per-cent increase from 2015. The 105th Grey Cup Festival alone was anticipated to create $100 million in economic activity for the area.
Greenberg explained that the new facilities have also attracted events such as a FIFA game, the NHL 100 Classic and dozens of festivals.
“That never would have happened but for the redevelopment of Lansdowne,” he said. “We’ve created an urban park. I would not look at it as strictly building a stadium.”
Greenberg recommended that Halifax should find an area that can support a lot of commercial development but he said that it comes at a price.
To facilitate the return of the Redblacks and the revitalization of Lansdowne, OSEG and the City of Ottawa paid nearly $600 million.
According to a representative of OSEG, the city invested $240 million to the building and renovation of the stadium and arena complex.
“Sometimes, in my view, you need to invest in order to get a return. You can’t expect cities to grow if the infrastructure is not in place,” said Greenberg.
Glen Hodgson, a senior fellow at the Conference Board of Canada and an expert in macro-economics, said that the most profitable part of Ottawa’s project is not the football team but the property development.
“A CFL team typically has revenues of around $16 million to $18 million. That makes it a fairly small business in a community,” Hodgson said. “That’s where the Ottawa model is interesting because they were able to do some property development along with attracting the CFL team. That’s where they probably made their money back, by building a condo tower and then the commercial space around the stadium.”
Mindful of the message
Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, was opposed to the LPP. He was involved in the process as both an analyst and activist, being a member of the Friends of Lansdowne.
Lee explains that Halifax should learn from Ottawa’s expansion and be mindful of how the project is sold to the public.
“You have to ask yourself, can Halifax, as a city, afford to do this? And ought we pay for this?” said Lee.
In previous interviews with The Chronicle Herald, Anthony
LeBlanc, one of the members of Maritime Football Ltd., has said that the question of a stadium, and who will pay, is the elephant in the room.
Estimates for a stadium in Halifax are north of $200 million.
Lee explained that from the beginning of the LPP, the boosters in Ottawa tried to say that taxpayers wouldn’t have to worry about footing the bill.
“Their mantra was it won’t cost the taxpayers a dime. I’m old enough and have enough experience as a business banker to know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody is paying,” he said.
Moreover, Lee said, he hopes that Halifax’s ownership will have a long, detailed discussion about different options because he feels Ottawa missed an opportunity for debate once the Frank Clair Stadium was ruled unfit.
“We never discussed any alternatives.”