Regina | New Mosaic Stadium

[boborider]

Here is a lnk to LP story in which Brad Wall states that the prov gov't won't meet the city's deadline for a provincial response to the city's stadium proposal. Wall states that there are a number of unanswered questions in the proposal forwarded to the prov gov't. It is astounding me that they are not working together on thi project or at least having a provincial liason person included in the process so that it wasn't a complete surprise and unknown quantity when the proposal was forwarded to the prov gov't. This whole thing has become a sad comedy of incompetance and stupidity.
http://www.leaderpost.com/Sask+Premi...440/story.html

[mjpaul]

Originally Posted by boborider

Here is a lnk to LP story in which Brad Wall states that the prov gov't won't meet the city's deadline for a provincial response to the city's stadium proposal. Wall states that there are a number of unanswered questions in the proposal forwarded to the prov gov't. It is astounding me that they are not working together on thi project or at least having a provincial liason person included in the process so that it wasn't a complete surprise and unknown quantity when the proposal was forwarded to the prov gov't. This whole thing has become a sad comedy of incompetance and stupidity.
http://www.leaderpost.com/Sask+Premi...440/story.html

I was for a year round facility...now I am against this "10 days a year Stadium project. If Mosaic Stadium structure gets a pass for safety, we DO NOT NEED to build a stadium. I am thinking this may be playing into any delays..spend the extra 100 million and lets put a roof on it. if we can afford open air, we can find the extra funds

I sum it up with this guys comment:
"Do it and do it right! This city needs a facility that can be used year-round. An open air facility (regardless whether the seats are covered or not) cannot be used year-round. Do not do something that the next generation will regret when winter events continue to bypass Regina because we do not have an appropriate venue. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build something, a facility with a retractable roof, that we can all be proud of. A closed roof would be the next best choice. An open air, would be a waste of money."

Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/entertainm...#ixzz1wZQ3jsAF

[osmo]

Originally Posted by mjpaul

I was for a year round facility...now I am against this "10 days a year Stadium project. If Mosaic Stadium structure gets a pass for safety, we DO NOT NEED to build a stadium. I am thinking this may be playing into any delays..spend the extra 100 million and lets put a roof on it. if we can afford open air, we can find the extra funds

I sum it up with this guys comment:
"Do it and do it right! This city needs a facility that can be used year-round. An open air facility (regardless whether the seats are covered or not) cannot be used year-round. Do not do something that the next generation will regret when winter events continue to bypass Regina because we do not have an appropriate venue. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build something, a facility with a retractable roof, that we can all be proud of. A closed roof would be the next best choice. An open air, would be a waste of money."

Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/entertainm...#ixzz1wZQ3jsAF

Dome trolls.

[Treesplease]

Originally Posted by boborider

Here is a lnk to LP story in which Brad Wall states that the prov gov't won't meet the city's deadline for a provincial response to the city's stadium proposal. Wall states that there are a number of unanswered questions in the proposal forwarded to the prov gov't. It is astounding me that they are not working together on thi project or at least having a provincial liason person included in the process so that it wasn't a complete surprise and unknown quantity when the proposal was forwarded to the prov gov't. This whole thing has become a sad comedy of incompetance and stupidity.
http://www.leaderpost.com/Sask+Premi...440/story.html

"Brent Sjoberg, deputy city manager of corporate services and chief financial officer for the city..........On May 4, he told reporters the deadline was important so the project could accomplish its schedule, but that the city would be open to granting a couple of weeks beyond May 31 if needed."

WTF? city is asking for $230M and they are open to granting a couple weeks extension to the their own imposed deadline?.......has this guy wigged or does he have ties to the Nigerian royal family?

Launch a funding request through public chanels and then top it off with a demanding attitude with a twist of entitlement.....nice approach.

[Treesplease]

Originally Posted by osmo

Dome trolls.

There are a lot of posts on this thread that are trolls. I didn't see MJ's as one of them.

[osmo]

Originally Posted by Treesplease

There are a lot of posts on this thread that are trolls. I didn't see MJ's as one of them.

Referring mostly to the LP comments - hense the 'S'.

I would of written a page if I was replying to him. Come-on now.

[Migs]

Originally Posted by Treesplease

"Brent Sjoberg, deputy city manager of corporate services and chief financial officer for the city..........On May 4, he told reporters the deadline was important so the project could accomplish its schedule, but that the city would be open to granting a couple of weeks beyond May 31 if needed."

WTF? city is asking for $230M and they are open to granting a couple weeks extension to the their own imposed deadline?.......has this guy wigged or does he have ties to the Nigerian royal family?

Launch a funding request through public chanels and then top it off with a demanding attitude with a twist of entitlement.....nice approach.

Province did the same thing to the Feds last year so they got nothing to complain about.

[The Unknown Poster]

Retractable room stadium in Regina? Puh-leeze

[Welkin]

Originally Posted by The Unknown Poster

Retractable room stadium in Regina? Puh-leeze

The dreamers of a retractable roof stadium in Regina are just that "dreamers". They obviously do not understand stadium economics or the stadium/arena entertainment industry. The City of Regina is not wealthy and has maxed out its credit limit. Considering all the other projects that need attention in the city, raising $50 million for their part of the outdoor stadium will be hard enough. Raising $250 million for their part of a retractable roof stadium is an impossibility without massive (and currently non-existent) private funding. Read the comments section of the L-P whenever the stadium issue comes up and you will see that the negative posts out number the positive posts 10-1. In reality, even the outdoor stadium is not a done deal.

As for the retractable stadium being "used year around" and during the winter, even in cities much larger than Regina (Vancouver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis...) outside of football, enclosed stadiums sit empty 95% of the year and almost 100% empty during the winter. There are no "winter events passing Regina by" that require the capacity of a stadium. That is why we should never build a facility that we can't afford, and outside of Riders games, that we will almost never use.

[djforsberg]

Originally Posted by Welkin

The dreamers of a retractable roof stadium in Regina are just that "dreamers". They obviously do not understand stadium economics or the stadium/arena entertainment industry. The City of Regina is not wealthy and has maxed out its credit limit. Considering all the other projects that need attention in the city, raising $50 million for their part of the outdoor stadium will be hard enough. Raising $250 million for their part of a retractable roof stadium is an impossibility without massive (and currently non-existent) private funding. Read the comments section of the L-P whenever the stadium issue comes up and you will see that the negative posts out number the positive posts 10-1. In reality, even the outdoor stadium is not a done deal.

As for the retractable stadium being "used year around" and during the winter, even in cities much larger than Regina (Vancouver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis...) outside of football, enclosed stadiums sit empty 95% of the year and almost 100% empty during the winter. There are no "winter events passing Regina by" that require the capacity of a stadium. That is why we should never build a facility that we can't afford, and outside of Riders games, that we will almost never use.

Lol, you lost all credibility by using online comments as evidence to support your opinion. A strong majority of people commenting on news stories are ignorant, uninformed, nut-cases. That and opponents to anything are always more vocal. Being more vocal does not equate to more support.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by Welkin

The dreamers of a retractable roof stadium in Regina are just that "dreamers". They obviously do not understand stadium economics or the stadium/arena entertainment industry. The City of Regina is not wealthy and has maxed out its credit limit. Considering all the other projects that need attention in the city, raising $50 million for their part of the outdoor stadium will be hard enough. Raising $250 million for their part of a retractable roof stadium is an impossibility without massive (and currently non-existent) private funding. Read the comments section of the L-P whenever the stadium issue comes up and you will see that the negative posts out number the positive posts 10-1. In reality, even the outdoor stadium is not a done deal.

As for the retractable stadium being "used year around" and during the winter, even in cities much larger than Regina (Vancouver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis...) outside of football, enclosed stadiums sit empty 95% of the year and almost 100% empty during the winter. There are no "winter events passing Regina by" that require the capacity of a stadium. That is why we should never build a facility that we can't afford, and outside of Riders games, that we will almost never use.

The City of Regina has very low debt levels and probably has the fastest growing tax base of any city in Canada. The debt limit is an articificial number that was in place for years. It is just a matter of the City asking the Province to bump up the limit. A mere formality.

The City of Regina has a higher credit rating than Winnipeg's and also higher than Ontario's.

[Welkin]

Originally Posted by Stormer

The City of Regina has very low debt levels and probably has the fastest growing tax base of any city in Canada. The debt limit is an articificial number that was in place for years. It is just a matter of the City asking the Province to bump up the limit. A mere formality.

The City of Regina has a higher credit rating than Winnipeg's and also higher than Ontario's.

Credit rating determines the price you pay for financing. Credit ceiling limits controls the amount you can borrow. The City of Regina is currently $100 million in debt and has applied to have its debt ceiling raised to $350 million. I am sure its good credit rating might become an issue if it asked to raise its debt ceiling to over $550 million to cover the added costs of a retractable dome stadium.

[Welkin]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

Lol, you lost all credibility by using online comments as evidence to support your opinion. A strong majority of people commenting on news stories are ignorant, uninformed, nut-cases. That and opponents to anything are always more vocal. Being more vocal does not equate to more support.

Such kind words for our fellow citizens. In all honesty, almost everyone should be considered ignorant when it comes to this project, because we really don't have all the details needed to make an informed decision. There will probably be shovels in the ground well before any of us really know how much everything will cost and how it will effect everyone's taxes or loss of city services.

It would be interesting to know how many of our city's citizens are in each of the three camps. I may be wrong, but I think they would be ranked 1) Renovate Mosaic 2) Build a dome and 3) Build a new outdoor stadium. Maybe we should start our own survey here. I cast one vote for build a new outdoor stadium.

Renovate Mosaic-0
Build Dome/Retractable Roof- 0
Build New Outdoor Stadium- 1

[Spongebob]

Originally Posted by Welkin

Such kind words for our fellow citizens. In all honesty, almost everyone should be considered ignorant when it comes to this project, because we really don't have all the details needed to make an informed decision. There will probably be shovels in the ground well before any of us really know how much everything will cost and how it will effect everyone's taxes or loss of city services.

It would be interesting to know how many of our city's citizens are in each of the three camps. I may be wrong, but I think they would be ranked 1) Renovate Mosaic 2) Build a dome and 3) Build a new outdoor stadium. Maybe we should start our own survey here. I cast one vote for build a new outdoor stadium.

Renovate Mosaic-0
Build Dome/Retractable Roof- 0
Build New Outdoor Stadium- 1

Using the bloggers at the Leader Post website to guage the current opinion towards a new stadium is hardly scientific. djforestberg is right when he says most of the bloggers on the LP site are wingnuts. I have followed it for a while now (and even posted a few times) and I can honestly say its usually the same whinners posting on there. I don't bother reading the comments anymore.
If you want my vote it's for a retractable roof, even though I know it won't happen.

[SkydivePilot]

Retractable. (May I vote more than once?)

[babo]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

Lol, you lost all credibility by using online comments as evidence to support your opinion. A strong majority of people commenting on news stories are ignorant, uninformed, nut-cases. That and opponents to anything are always more vocal. Being more vocal does not equate to more support.

Parallels can be drawn to people who post on topical on-line forums, so I don't see how any credibility was lost.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by babo

Parallels can be drawn to people who post on topical on-line forums, so I don't see how any credibility was lost.

I don't think it's that wrong. Generally online forums where people regularly participate have a little more even-mindedness. Yes we disagree often and debate, but it doesn't turn into b*tch-fests constantly. Nor does something completely unrelated always get brought back to some sort of disparaging statement about a political party and always in hyperbole.

A good example of the comment section vs forums was when Mayor Quimby was around, he was eventually banned.

[osmo]

I think people will favor a dome if they we're assured they didn't have to pay for most of it. But people are not that dumb and can see through the smoke and mirrors. Even a outdoor proposal may indeed lead to tax increases but its a manageable number that does not have fees down the road that can spiral out of control.

There's a host of options for the City to raise money. All the province would have to do is sign off on it but things such has establishing tax increment districts could help, assign development caps on the outer suburbs and raise land values. Instead of giving the builders sweet heart deals and letting the Hill's, Fiacco's and the Fourgere's hook up their portfolio's and friends. Instead start digging in their pockets for much needed revenue (to pump into capital projects and housing). The demand is there to build. They will not run away. But too many cronies run the show here and are making good money doing so. I won't hold my breath.

[wacko]

My vote is for the outdoor stadium. It is in my opinion the most rational option.

I would prefer it if the city didn't artificially raise land values, though maybe it doesn't matter too much since I already can't afford to purchase or even rent any decent property in town. (Seriously, what happened to limiting total PITI to 30% of your gross income?)

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by Stormer

The City of Regina has very low debt levels and probably has the fastest growing tax base of any city in Canada. The debt limit is an articificial number that was in place for years. It is just a matter of the City asking the Province to bump up the limit. A mere formality.

The City of Regina has a higher credit rating than Winnipeg's and also higher than Ontario's.

winnipegs rating
Bond-rating agencies Standard & Poor's continues to give Winnipeg an AA credit rating, while Moody's Investors Services continues to give the city an Aa1 rating.
source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...nipegs-credit-

reginas
Standard & Poor’s Rating Service reaffirmed today the City of Regina’s AA+ credit rating
source: http://www.regina.ca/press/news-and-...ity-of-regina/

for those interested

10 yrs ago winnipeg had one of the worst ratings if anyones wondering