Now we need a spokesman or spokesmen in the Halifax area. I am willing to do some behind the scenes work such as preparing reports and donating some money. But we need someone in the Halifax area who is willing to approach politicians and even speak on TV or radio if the opportunity arises (if the group is successful then this will most likely happen). Also we need people to start a petition and knock on doors.
I am very serious about this, but I need help with it. Who is interested in the Halifax area in settling up a group and organizing meetings? I would like to contact the person who started the online petition to see if he is interested (
http://www.petitiononline.com/hstadium/petition.html ). There are also people on the Skyscraperpage Forum who seem to be interested in this. What about
Fusion Halifax? They already have scheduled meetings and a website. Would they be interested in this cause? Is there anyone on this forum who is involved in the Fusion Halifax group? One question that I have regards the introductory statement to their website "
FUSION Halifax is a networking group for young Halifax residents who are inspired to make their city a better place to live, work and play" I am sure that there are a lot of middle-aged and older residents that have similar interests. It is not only young people who are pro-development.
Regarding the sponsorship idea, I think that it is very important in order to get this going. I don't think that it would raise $35,000,000 (although I wish that it would). Also, I think that people donating $1000 should only expect to have their name on a large plaque in the stadium. I think a reasonable goal would be to raise $3,000,000 (3000 sponsors) which would be enough to possibly buy land for the stadium. However, once we start talking about this amount of money, it is important that the money be protected within a trust fund with the name of a trustworthy group in the Halifax area. This is why I think it is necessary to get the HRM involved right from the beginning so that they can be part of the organization and set up a trust fund which could accept tax deductible donations. However, it is also important not to rely on the HRM to do all the work. If the Commonwealth Games bid had been successful, thousands of volunteers would have been required. So I think that it would be possible to get a couple hundred involved in promoting a stadium and to knock on doors to promote it (just look at President Barack Obama's campaign, he was able to get many thousands of people knocking on doors) .
We need a website similar in scope to this one (
http://www.halifaxfarmersmarket.com/ ). Didn't they have a sponsorship program? If so, they were successful so it would be a good idea to contact them for details on settling it up.