Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
Unfortunately a stadium needs to be usable 12 months of the year, not just the 3 months that there are people on the waterfront. Aside from the possible train connections, this is an atrocious location. You have placed it on the site of the parking lots for the Cunard Center if I am reading this right, which makes it a non-starter. In addition the traffic down there is ridiculous at normal times; at times when there are events at the CC it is totally hopeless. Multiply that by a factor of 10 and you have a recipe for disaster.
If you are insistent on having spectators shivering and freezing in the cold and damp, put it in Shannon Park. That is also a poor location for traffic and transit, but at least has the potential for improvement. The Windsor St site remains superior to all alternatives IMO.
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I agree that the Windsor St site is a good location and possibly the best location. However, it is owned by the DND and is still in use. So it might not be available in the foreseeable future.
When I lived in Halifax, most of the buses crossed the MacDonald Bridge as opposed to the MacKay bridge (next to Shannon Park) and there didn't seem to be many buses traveling to Shannon Park. So with Shannon Park it seems like it will be difficult to get to except by car.
To be honest, I never lived in that part of Halifax by the waterfront, so you could be right. There seems to be people living close to that area so it would be good to hear from people who live in the surrounding area to see if they think that it will be a miserable location during the fall. However, the stadium could be designed with a roof over the stands and built so that wind is not whipping through the stadium. Unless a stadium is completely enclosed (a dome) then it likely will not be used 12 months of the year. Most outdoor stadiums in Canada probably are not used very much during the winter months. So it will likely be used mainly from April until November. But if it is built with covered stands then it might even be used at times during the winter if people bundle up warmly.
Looking at the Cunard Centre website, it is Pier 23 which in the one image I had partly removed to get the stadium to fit east-west which is as you say a non-starter. However, there is enough room to have it fit in a south-north direction.
I think that the best option is to look at various locations and look at all of the advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of this location is that it is within walking distance of SMU so they might offer financial support. Also, it is close to the downtown which will bring people to the downtown and help to keep it a vibrant location.
I would suggest having 4 to 5 potential sites and then list the advantages and disadvantages of each. For all those who are really serious about getting a stadium built and have it become a successful venue then it is worth the time to consider each location. Not everyone will agree with each location.