Published on March 23, 2012 9:20 PM by dbo.
A round up of stadium news, both good and bad, from around the league and prospective cities.
Update 2012-03-24: Now with updates!
A three-judge panel has thrown out the Lansdowne Park Conservancy’s challenge that the city’s procurement process was unfair. The challenge was called “an abuse of process” in the ruling, with the judges seeing the case as a duplicate of the Friends of Lansdowne case, which is pending an appeal. Despite this, the Conservancy succeeded in helping delay the project and added a year to the return of sports to Lansdowne.
Earlier, plans to release designs for a Rideau Canal footbridge in mid-April were announced. Instead of looking at the footbridge causing traffic and parking issues (which can be simply solved), the city should consider using the east side of the bridge as another bus drop off point for stadium events.
Continuing windy conditions have further delayed the construction of Winnipeg’s new stadium, leading the Blue Bombers to develop additional Plan B scenarios where they will play more home games at Canad Inns Stadium. While disappointing, construction was mainly stalled until Dec. 2010, and so delays are not unexpected with an aggressive 18 month schedule. Update: Some are ready to say “I told you so” though.
As expected, Halifax will be passing on any stadium project with a lack of provincial, federal or private partners to share funding the cause. This may hinder any serious stadium discussions in Halifax from being launched in the next ten years or more. Without substantial private leadership in the Maritimes on a stadium, the possibility of a CFL franchise for the region may be on hold for another generation. Update: What is the possibility council will go against the staff recommendation?
The provincial government raised some eyebrows last week when they cancelled a naming rights deal for BC Place Stadium.
In a season-ticket forum, many topics were discussed, including the suitability of Rogers Centre for the Argonauts (and the media admitted they caused the story of natural grass in Rogers Centre to be overblown). Update: Rudge again made the point to a Toronto Sun editorial board meeting that Rogers Centre can have an exciting atmosphere with fans in the stands. With no new stadium forthcoming, they have to change people’s minds about the stadium by improving the experience and adding the fans.
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Stadium Highs, Stadium Lows was published on March 23, 2012 9:20 PM by dbo.
399 words.
This article is categorized under Stadiums and tagged with bc-place-stadium, ottawa, rogers-centre and winnipeg-blue-bombers.