Doer lines up behind Polo Park site
Wed Apr 25 2007
By Mia Rabson
KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Gary Doer (at podium) is joined by candidates (from left) Andrew Swan, Eric Robinson and Kerri Irvin-Ross as he announces NDP support for stadium Tuesday.
THE Winnipeg Blue Bombers will get provincial cash to help build a new stadium, Premier Gary Doer pledged on the campaign trail Tuesday.
And if Doer gets his way, the new facility will go up at the same site as the aging stadium at Polo Park.
After months of hedging on the issue of a new stadium, Doer told a crowd of 220 people at a Manitoba Chambers of Commerce breakfast he feels the existing stadium is outdated with bathrooms that are "crap" and seats "built for Lilliputians."
Later in the morning he used the MTS Centre as a backdrop for an official campaign announcement on the stadium.
"We want facilities that are not 60 years old," said Doer. "We want modern facilities for our modern community."
Doer also committed $60 million Tuesday to modernizing and building new recreation centres and sports facilities for amateur sports across Manitoba.
He said he can't commit to helping build a new stadium for professional sports and ignore the needs of communities, where kids don't have enough arenas or soccer fields to play soccer on.
"If kids want to play, we've got a community responsibility, when they want to participate, to build those facilities," said Doer.
Doer had never ruled out provincial money for a new stadium but it was never on his list of priorities for provincial capital. He had also never said which stadium proposal he prefers until yesterday.
"I personally like the Polo Park site initially because of the opportunities for private investment adjacent to the shopping mall," said Doer.
That proposal was put forward by CanWest Global executive David Asper.
The other option on the table, for a St. Boniface stadium from Canad Inns president Leo Ledohowski, is a no-go for provincial cash as far as Doer is concerned because it includes a new convention centre, which would compete with the Winnipeg Convention Centre downtown.
"I won't be in favour of anything that will affect the Convention Centre (in downtown Winnipeg)," Doer told the Free Press.
The Blue Bombers' board of directors is considering both proposals now and will then move forward on any requests for public money.
Both of the proposals call for $80 million in public funding -- divided equally between Ottawa and Manitoba. Thus far, Ottawa has expressed no interest in funding a new stadium in Winnipeg, and Doer said yesterday federal funding would be helpful but isn't totally necessary.
But he also indicated even a $40 million contribution from Manitoba is too rich for taxpayers.
He said the stadium funding from the province will be doled out with the same type of public-private partnership as the MTS Centre.
The $133.5 million MTS Centre was funded 70 per cent by the private sector. Together, the three levels of government contributed $40 million, of which the province's contribution was just over $13 million.
-- with files from Bartley Kives
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
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