[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by wespidel

My point Halifaxboyns, is that if Halifax were to build a new Metro Centre, they would be spending at least 280 million so why is a stadium any different. Why build a 10 thousand permanent seat stadium, in a city the size of Halifax! Well we all know why and that is because Saint Marys needs it and it barely qualifies for FIFA and that in my opinion is wrong and an insult to our city!

I appreciate your opinion but the majority people in Halifax and in the region that have any vision all want a bigger and better stadium built and do not want a tiny little dinky 10 thousand permanent seat stadium. I have talked to a lot of people in the city and in the region and so have these people and all are on the same page and why wouldn`t they be!

I'm not saying the stadium is any different, go back and read my words. There is a huge difference between talking and building. There is no MC2 under construction. I also agree with beyeas - you need to let the whole SMU thing go. It was ruled out because it couldn't be much bigger.

To also insinuate that people who don't agree with your opinion 'lack vision' is just pure bull. I'm not saying I want a 10,000 stadium and if you go back through this thread you'll find I've been firmly in the realm of 25,000 seats with expansion capabilities. But what I'm not about is throwing up a stadium without thinking about the future.

I think beyeas says it best:

Originally Posted by beyeas

The case for a stadium with something more like 25,000 permanent seats would require an anchor tenant, and given that there has been utter silence from the business community (at least as far as we know), we cannot assume that there is an existing owner/ownership group out there.
Therefore, we will only at this time commit public funds to a 14,000 seat (but expandable) stadium. HOWEVER, if such a potential interested ownership group wants to step forward know and leverage investment by combining construction costs, then we could move forward in one step and build a 25,000 stadium.
Basically, rather than building a larger stadium for a theoretical team and hoping they will come, IT IS TIME FOR A POTENTIAL CFL OWNERSHIP GROUP TO STEP FORWARD AND INDICATE A WILLINGNESS. If no one is willing to do so... well... I think that says something about the potential for having a team here (although personally I do think that, if pushed, such a potential owner(s) would come forward).

I'm saying basically the same thing: If we build a HUGE stadium without knowing for certain a team will be coming to occupy the thing, we're setting ourselves up for failure out of the gate. Now is the time for the business community and the people who wanted a team in Halifax to step up and put their money where their mouth is.

We have to be very careful about how we proceed because while there is clear support (based on the last vote) that can change and if this thing becomes a huge money pit; we cut off our nose to spite our faces for the next major piece of recreational infrastructure that would be required in a growing city.

Without knowing where the $ is coming from (meaning: Will there be any sponsorship/interest from the private sector to set up a team or buy naming rights, etc. or what levels of government can put up $ to reduce the HRM burden); the size of the stadium is irrelevant. There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered before you reach the point of talking about size. Size will dictate cost, but if you have zero $ committments, size won't matter because you'll have zero $ to work with.