I work for DND and the buildings in this park are in a pretty bad state of disrepair (I've worked in them) and I believe DND is in the process of finding another location and want to tear down a good portion of willow park. This could free up the land needed if DND were willing to sell the land. The only thing is I've heard their targeting between 2015-2017 so its a little too far into the future perhaps.

Who can write a good letter to the editor suggesting a stadium site at Willow Park?....I'm sure it would get published.

I would suggest that you write it Empire, and anyone else who would like to give it a try. This would certainly be an ideal location and my 1st choice. If not this location, then the Dartmouth Shopping Centre area has excellent public transit and parking if you include the Sportsplex location. Would any of the open areas around this location be available (example the Urban Park area?). Although Shannon Park has an abundance of land, I would worry about the transit options. I thought that the Burnside area had poor public transit.

Thanks for the information Wishblade. Is there any information about where they would relocate to? I am not expecting anything that is classified information. I am just wondering if anything has been disclosed to the media?

Lets's write it together and send it in signed Skyscraper Forum and list the website.

I don't really have any other information about it, just that I've heard they are planning to demo it. Im not sure where they plan to relocate, and who is to say, they may still decide to just rebuild on the same lands. I personally am hoping its opened up for something different.

Good idea. There are a lot of good points on this thread. I could do a compilation and post it later and then others could change it to what they think sounds better. So it will in effect be a joint letter from the Skyscraperpage Forum. There certainly are people on this forum who have a way with words.

Sounds good to me.......

These are my feelings and the feeling that I get from this thread. I hope that I am not being presumptuous in saying that the majority of us on the Halifax section of the skyscraperpage feel this way.

I didn't major in literature, so hopefully some others can take this, add to it and refine it.

Please give your honest opinions Empire and change this however you please. This is just a start; not the finished letter


There has been talk in the Halifax area of building a new Metro Centre II. We believe that a new football stadium is more important to the Halifax area than a new Metro Centre II arena. It will provide a facility that will allow Halifax to potentially join the CFL and would allow citizens and visitors to attend concerts in comfort. Down the road Halifax may need a larger, more modern Metro Centre to gain an NHL team, however, in the near future the NHL is likely not coming to Halifax, whereas the CFL has expressed interest in having a Halifax team in the CFL. Should Halifax be like Hamilton and build a large arena and then dream for 30 years of the NHL coming to town, or build a stadium and most likely obtain a CFL team? Just imagine the Grey Cup being held in Halifax. This is not a pipe dream, Halifax has proven that it can put on big events.

With a new stadium, the Halifax area will have two facilities for concerts. One for very large concerts (the new stadium) and another (the current Metro Centre arena) for medium size concerts. People will be able to go to a large concert and have adequate washroom facilities and places to sit. The new stadium will complement the current Metro Centre whereas a new Metro Centre II arena will simply make the old Metro Centre arena obsolete with little added benefit to the community.

The time has come to put the Commonwealth Games behind us and move on to newer and better things. A new stadium designed economically that could be used for multiple purposes would be a great benefit and source of civic pride to the people of the Halifax area and Nova Scotia. We need someone in the HRM city council to get the ball rolling on a new stadium. We, the silent majority, are sure it will be popular with most people in HRM other than the few vocal naysayers. What has happened to the great excitement that was generated by Halifax winning the Canada bid for the Commonwealth Games? It has again been replaced with a feeling of “we can’t do it”. A lot of us want that Halifax moxy back. We were given a promise and sense of excitement that was not fulfilled. We want the rest of Canada to know that Halifax has not been neutered and still has an attitude of being able to get things done. We believe that Halifax can support the CFL and that the Halifax team will become one of the most successful franchises in the CFL which will greatly benefit not only Halifax and the Maritimes but the entire CFL. Where are the people in the city council who supported the Commonwealth Games? You gave us a dream and replaced it with a sense of hopelessness in obtaining a stadium and obtaining part of the Canadian dream; a Grey Cup winning team.

We feel that the best option for Halifax would be a fiscally responsible stadium that fits the Halifax climate. Design it so that most of the permanent seats are covered (what’s the point of a roof that covers only half of the permanent seats?). We all know that there are going to be many concerts and sports events that are rain-drenched affairs. So build a section of 15,000 entirely covered seats with all the washroom facilities with room for another 30,000 temporary seats (to be added when required). Then once the stadium shows its worth, it can be expanded with more permanent seats.

This sentiment is held by the majority of us on the Halifax section of the skyscraperpage forum. For those interested in contributing to this discussion join us at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=174940 . We are not only interested in the community giving ideas on the design but also the location. For all those who share this desire for a stadium sign the on-line petition for a stadium at: http://www.petitiononline.com/hstadium/petition.html

Not so -- I am unaware of any call for proposals for a new arena.

I would remove this. There are other reasons than the NHL for a larger arena, regardless of how weak they may be.

Not sure about "moxy". A good start though.

Here is the definition of moxy that I was thinking of: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=moxy. Don't you get the feeling that Halifax was neutered (i.e. castrated) in the eyes of the rest of Canada when it dropped out of the race?

Here is a far better description of my general feeling: http://thebrucereport.com/?p=399 . However, he uses the word mojo .

Fenwick16 I think that letter has got every point covered. The only thing I would also add is the petition link too. And its almost at 800, if we can get this petition noticed I'm sure that number could be in the thousands if not tens of thousands.

http://www.petitiononline.com/hstadium/petition.html

Thank you q12 and Keith P. I incorporated your ideas into the letter (the above letter has been edited).

-

From the weekly news (old Daily News)

Rick's Rants Monday November 23rd/09

RICK HOWE
Halifax News Net
http://www.halifaxnewsnet.ca/index.c...=305191&sc=612

Excerpt:

Hi Everyone, I would love to post your letter on my blog/online magazine Spacing Atlantic (www.spacingatlantic.ca). We are a new site dealing with urban space issues in atlantic canada and might be able to help to bring more attention to your proposals, which I think are really important discussions to be having.

Would this be ok with everyone?

Sounds like a great idea to me! Good luck with the online magazine. I have re-posted your link ( http://spacingatlantic.ca/ ) since the one above didn't work. I have found that I need to leave a space between the parenthesis and website link.

Thanks, it'll be up in the next day or two. Hope you guys will bring your insightful comments to the blog.

Thanks for the comments and your idea on writing a letter.

I added a section about the Moncton stadium. I tried not to sound too negative towards Moncton since, if Halifax gets a team, we will need their support also (unless Moncton gets their own team).

This is the latest version of the letter using the contributions of various members of this forum.

There has been talk in the Halifax area of building a new Metro Centre II. We believe that a new football stadium is more important to the Halifax area than a new Metro Centre II arena. It will provide a facility that will allow Halifax to potentially join the CFL and would allow citizens and visitors to attend concerts in comfort. Down the road Halifax may need a larger, more modern Metro Centre to gain an NHL team, however, in the near future the NHL is likely not coming to Halifax, whereas the CFL has expressed interest in having a Halifax team in the CFL. Should Halifax be like Hamilton and build a large arena and then dream for 30 years of the NHL coming to town, or build a stadium and most likely obtain a CFL team? Just imagine the Grey Cup being held in Halifax. This is not a pipe dream, Halifax has proven that it can put on big events.

With a new stadium, the Halifax area will have two facilities for concerts. One for very large concerts (the new stadium) and another (the current Metro Centre arena) for medium size concerts. People will be able to go to a large concert and have adequate washroom facilities and places to sit. The new stadium will complement the current Metro Centre whereas a new Metro Centre II arena will simply make the old Metro Centre arena obsolete with little added benefit to the community.

The time has come to put the Commonwealth Games behind us and move on to newer and better things. A new stadium designed economically that could be used for multiple purposes would be a great benefit and source of civic pride to the people of the Halifax area and Nova Scotia. We need someone in the HRM city council to get the ball rolling on a new stadium. We, the silent majority, are sure it will be popular with most people in HRM other than the few vocal naysayers. What has happened to the great excitement that was generated by Halifax winning the Canada bid for the Commonwealth Games? It has again been replaced with a feeling of “we can’t do it”. A lot of us want that Halifax moxy back. We were given a promise and sense of excitement that was not fulfilled. We want the rest of Canada to know that Halifax has not been neutered and still has an attitude of being able to get things done. We believe that Halifax can support the CFL and that the Halifax team will become one of the most successful franchises in the CFL which will greatly benefit not only Halifax and the Maritimes but the entire CFL. Where are the people in the city council who supported the Commonwealth Games? You gave us a dream and replaced it with a sense of hopelessness in obtaining a stadium and obtaining part of the Canadian dream; a Grey Cup winning team.

We feel that the best option for Halifax would be a fiscally responsible stadium that fits the Halifax climate. Design it so that most of the permanent seats are covered (what’s the point of a roof that covers only half of the permanent seats?). We all know that there are going to be many concerts and sports events that are rain-drenched affairs. So build a section of 15,000 entirely covered seats with all the washroom facilities with room for another 30,000 temporary seats (to be added as required). Then once the stadium shows its worth, it can be expanded with more permanent seats. Moncton has lead the way with their new stadium and now it is Halifax's turn to go a step further.

This sentiment is held by the majority of us on the Halifax section of the skyscraperpage forum. For those of you interested in contributing to this discussion, join us at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=174940 . We are interested in having the Halifax area community give ideas on both the design and location of a new stadium. For all those who share this desire for a stadium you can also sign the on-line petition for a stadium at: http://www.petitiononline.com/hstadium/petition.html

I cut off the upper tier of seats from McMahon Stadium (Calgary) and pasted it at the same resolution onto the DND lands (Google Maps). This would be about 30,000 seats. It is a tight fit.

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/3...faxforumar.jpg