Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

I know the Halifax team will probably brand itself as a regional, Atlantic Canadian team, but I can't see much support coming from NL. It's also outside the sphere of easy travel if you want to see the game. May as well focus on being a Maritime team, in my opinion, unless they don't want to feel too exclusive of NL. I don't think it'll hurt our feelings though

I can't see any justification for "regional" branding at all, personally. I mean, we have tons of Habs, Leafs, Jays, Pats, and Bruins etc. fans here and we're a lot farther from those places than Halifax is to the rest of the Maritimes.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I think it's great to say things promoting one's own city but it definitely annoys me if it isn't factual. For instance, having grown up in Amherst and made numerous trips to Moncton over the years, and one thing that consistently stood out is how few out of province plates there were anywhere you go compared to either Amherst or Halifax. There are times I saw maybe 1-2 out of province plates in almost an entire day while it's impossible to make a 15 min drive to the local supermarket in Amherst or HRM without seeing several. But of course it's possible the number you're seeing genuinely seems like a lot to you.

I don't intend to hijack this thread any further, but I have to correct your erroneous impression.

I don't know where you hung out when you visited Moncton (Riverview maybe), but I can assure you that if you spent any time at CF Champlain Place, Wheeler Park or Costco, you would see oodles of out of province plates, especially from NS.

Now you can see what I mean about Haligonians belittling Moncton.

You should come back up from Halifax sometime for a visit. PM me and I'll take you on a tour of the city..........

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I have nothing more to say on the matter...........

[Acajack]

Let's not lose sight of the fact that this is probably the best news *ever* on the Halifax CFL stadium front.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I don't intend to hijack this thread any further, but I have to correct your erroneous impression.

I don't know where you hung out when you visited Moncton (Riverview maybe), but I can assure you that if you spent any time at CF Champlain Place, Wheeler Park or Costco, you would see oodles of out of province plates, especially from NS.

Now you can see what I mean about Haligonians belittling Moncton.

You should come back up from Halifax sometime for a visit. PM me and I'll take you on a tour of the city..........

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I have nothing more to say on the matter...........

I have made many dozens of visits over several decades that have certainly (predominantly) been to commercial areas like Champlain place, downtown, and Mounatin Rd. There's nothing belittling about discussing my personal real world observations. The problem is that I actually have enough experience on the topic that I'm fully equipped to call BS when i see it.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by JHikka

If we can get this back onto stadiums that would be neat.

This has become a retail thread for the last page.

Anything else on this anecdotal retail front will be removed.

If you want to measure other cities on the retail front I suggest utilizing the Canadian Retail Thread.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Let's not lose sight of the fact that this is probably the best news *ever* on the Halifax CFL stadium front.

The latest report makes it sound like Halifax regional council will vote on the hypothetical financing scheme tomorrow night and direct staff to carry on work with the business case and planning. There was an earlier vote on July 17 about staff carrying out negotiations with the CFL group. It passed unanimously.

I expect this one to pass easily too. The "real" vote will be the one with more concrete numbers attached.

[someone123]

A sloppy rendering of the Hamilton stadium cloned onto Shannon Park (the scale should theoretically be correct since the camera elevation and angle were the same, although the land is not completely flat):



Bonus Soviet worker housing on the left, although that might have been demolished by now.

[Nouvellecosse]

So... they don't actually plan to accompany it with acres of surface parking?

[esquire]

That picture is helpful to someone like me who is not familiar with the location in question. It reminds me a bit of Candlestick Park in terms of the site.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

So... they don't actually plan to accompany it with acres of surface parking?

They are planning to build a parking structure as part of the development. I'm not sure how many surface spots there will be but multiple related spokespeople (e.g. the mayor) have explicitly said they don't want it to be surrounded by acres of parking.

Given where the site is I think there could be a good mix of transportation options: structured parking, buses, ferries, and paths for pedestrians, cyclists, and other small vehicles.

It hasn't been explicitly mentioned as far as I know but for the CWGs a ferry terminal was planned here. It probably wouldn't cost much to put a dock in. There are currently 5 ferries and they each carry about 400 passengers max.

With a good mix of transportation options you could get away with a few thousand spots in structured parking.

[Nouvellecosse]

Well as long as it's in a structure I won't bother complaining about it

[q12]

Originally Posted by someone123

A sloppy rendering of the Hamilton stadium cloned onto Shannon Park (the scale should theoretically be correct since the camera elevation and angle were the same, although the land is not completely flat):



Bonus Soviet worker housing on the left, although that might have been demolished by now.

Looks good. The soviet buildings are gone. Here is an aerial from this month:


https://twitter.com/McgrawCory/statu...84552223465473

[VANRIDERFAN]

Shannon Park, the RCN Ghetto.

I really hope that this works out.

[JHikka]

Staying on the Halifax front:



http://canpl.ca/video/welcome-to-the...x-wanderers-fc

Part of the allure is its simplicity, which, in many ways, lends itself to the 6,500-seat Wanderers Grounds becoming quite boisterous on CPL Matchdays.

“It’s been one of our key focus points, to create an intimate and unique venue that’s soccer specific,” Martin said of a stadium that’s just a short distance from the city’s picturesque Harbour.

[MonctonRad]

I like that location for a soccer specific stadium quite a bit.

It's a good use of the land, and a small stadium there fits in quite well.

[craner]

Originally Posted by someone123

A sloppy rendering of the Hamilton stadium cloned onto Shannon Park (the scale should theoretically be correct since the camera elevation and angle were the same, although the land is not completely flat):



Bonus Soviet worker housing on the left, although that might have been demolished by now.

Come on Halifax - please make this happen.
Lets get this league truly cost-to-coast.
(Fingers crossed)

[q12]

Halifax council moves ahead with CFL stadium proposal

By STAFF StarMetro Halifax
Tues., Oct. 30, 2018

HALIFAX—Halifax regional council has voted unanimously in favour of a staff report on a business case for a CFL stadium at Shannon Park.

Council first met with Maritime Football Limited Partnership (MFLP) in June of this year.

The partnership – comprising AMJ Campbell Van Lines president Bruce Bowser and former Arizona Coyotes co-owners Anthony LeBlanc and Gary Drummond – is in talks with the Canadian Football League to secure an expansion franchise for Halifax for the 2021 season, conditional on a stadium.

The group has since met with Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) staff, provincial staff and Premier Stephen McNeil.

A report to regional council last week revealed MFLP’s pitch to build a 24,000-seat stadium in Shannon Park, a 38-hectare area on the Dartmouth side of the MacKay Bridge that was used for military housing from the 1950s until the early 2000s.

That pitch was debated at council Tuesday afternoon, where the topic of financing was top of mind, as it still isn’t clear how much public funding would go into the project if HRM were to partner with MFLP.

The report says the stadium would cost $170- to $190 million and proposes a controversial model called tax increment financing (TIF) to pay, at least in part, to build it. A TIF model requires borrowing money upfront and then paying it back through increased property taxes in the surrounding area.

That method was questioned at length at Tuesday’s council meeting. Counc. Steve Adams wondered what would happen if the TIF couldn’t provide enough financing, while Counc. Tim Outhit asked who would carry the debt.

Dube said MFLP would own the stadium and therefore carry the debt.

Further capital could be required from HRM to build the appropriate infrastructure for the development, like roads and transit.

In the report it seemed that HRM would also be on the hook for ongoing repairs and maintenance of the stadium.

Counc. Lisa Blackburn said the potential repair and maintenance obligations gave her pause.

“We're not in the business of running CFL stadiums, and that is something that needs to be clarified," she said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

HRM CAO Jacques Dube said the wording in the wording in the report was “clumsy,” but HRM would not actually have to contribute to those ongoing costs.

MFLP’s capital contribution to the project is not yet clear.

Shannon Park was previously the seat of the Millbrook First Nation, which is in the process of reclaiming about 3 hectares of land in the area.

MFLP will have to get the go-ahead from the First Nation to build their proposed stadium.

Questions around the capital contributions from the province, municipal planning bylaw amendments, and community approval also need to be answered – all of which are now in the hands of HRM staff.

A more detailed business analysis is expected to take about six months.

In the meantime, MFLP has plans to launch a season ticket campaign and a team-naming contest in November.

More to come.

https://www.thestar.com/halifax/2018...-proposal.html

[JHikka]

Via Global:

"Dubé said on Tuesday that the municipality is not interested in helping with the operating and maintenance costs of a potential stadium. It was a statement echoed by many councillors, who said they would vote down any proposal that saw operating and maintenance costs be footed by the municipality. Instead, staff said that they are recommending the use of a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) model."

Which clarifies that at least.

So MFLP is looking for government money, they would carry the debt and own the stadium, and be on the hook for maintenance and operating?

"The CAO also revealed that Maritime Football have been talking to SMU and Dal and are looking at making the stadium a full-time ice surface in the winter as well as other partnership possibilities."

SMU and DAL seem like no-brainers. Curious how the field would hold up with an ice surface on it all winter and how often that would be utilized and how much revenue that would generate.

[Mrs Sauga]

There isn't a plot of land closer to the downtown for the CFL stadium?

[Nouvellecosse]

Is it really normal for cities to have large vacant or under-utilized plots of land close to downtown? I'd say it's pretty lucky for them to find something as close as that.