Winnipeg needs a new football stadium. Now! Not in three years.

Author: Scott Taylor

September 15, 2009

Nice to see the mainstream media catch up. After having the story here at www.hotdoghockey.com for more than a month, the Winnipeg Sun picked up this week on the fact that it’s extremely unlikely that the city will have a new football stadium any time soon.

As we reported last month, the man behind the new stadium at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg businessman David Asper, was in a quandary. Everything was set to go on his stadium project except for one thing: His real estate arm, Creswin Properties Ltd., was having difficulty selling the leases to the new commercial venture, a venture which is the key to financing the entire project.

In other words, if Asper’s new mall at Polo Park isn’t sold out, the funding for the huge mortgage on the new stadium and the cash for the rainy day fund that’s meant to keep the Bombers in the black for eternity, doesn’t start rolling in. Without that funding, the project is in trouble. Not dead, necessarily, but in trouble.

Let’s not pull any punches here. It’s an extremely difficult time for Asper to be leasing out commercial space for a shopping mall. In fact, many of the corporations that generally rent these spaces are pulling out of malls. They’re not looking for more space. For the Creswin Properties sales staff, this has not been an easy assignment and late last month, Hotdog Hockey Sports was told by a number of Canwest, Creswin and U of M insiders that there is no way construction would start until the spring.

In fact, there is now a fear that the project will have to be either downsized or phased in slowly. Asper wants to get into the ground in November, but that will likely have to be pushed back while Creswin waits for U.S. retailers to get through the recession. There is also some concern that the stadium might not be as fancy as was originally planned. It might not have more than 25,000-30,000 seats. Many of the bells and whistles might have to be delayed until more money comes into the project through the leasing program.

This week, the Sun found a source to say that Asper “has asked the Winnipeg Blue Bombers board for an extension of time to attract businesses to set up shop on the Polo Park site where the existing stadium now stands.” Asper bristled when asked about this bit of news. “There are confidential discussions going on among all of the stakeholders involved in this project,” Asper told www.hotdoghockey.com on Sept. 14. “When those conversations stop and everyone knows exactly how we will proceed, then I will speak to the public about the situation. But when bits and pieces leak out like this, it makes it increasingly difficult to come forward and say anything about the substance of our conversations. But I am not going to comment on anything until such time as all the stakeholders have been informed of the progress and we can all report comfortably to the public about where we are on the issues.”

Asper did admit that there are “milestones” in the agreements with three levels of government but he also added, “these agreements are highly complex and until we deal with the various milestones internally, I’m not going to comment on anything.”

“I’ve been put into a position where I have to respond to gossip and innuendo and I’m not going to do that,” he continued. “Let’s wait until everyone of the stakeholders is ready to discuss the situation publicly. We’ll talk about it then.”

Listen, regardless of what happens, there must be a new stadium. There is no other choice. Despite what you may have read in a local newspaper regarding the 2004 Tower Report (a report that addressed the costs for a stadium re-fit) that report is now completely obsolete. Five or six years ago, $9 million might have been enough to upgrade the stadium. Today, according to three separate sources at City Hall, “at least $45 million would be required to bring the existing stadium up to code".

That’s $45 million -- and that’s just “up to code”.

Meanwhile, some Winnipeggers are concerned about the amount of public funding going into a new stadium. That amount (no more than $35 million of a proposed $140 million project) hasn’t changed and both Canada’s President of the Treasury Board Vic Toews and Manitoba’s Premier Gary Doer have said it will not.

Fact is, anyone who has gone to a Bomber game this season or who attended the AC/DC concert last month, knows that the current stadium is a dump, in a lousy location, with limited parking, few concessions and serious infrastructure problems.

As Mayor Katz said this week: “We have no time restriction on this project. Whatever David needs, well, we’re fine with that.”

That’s because Katz knows the state of the current stadium means that it’s closer to a date with a wrecking ball than it is to Game 1 of the 2012 CFL season.

This project has to get done. There is no Plan B.
 

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