Halifax Stadium Discussion

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Let me fish around and see if I can find anything on this.

Sounds good. I'd like to see the stats if you can find them.

Not a lot of people bike to games but a lot bike for the other amenities surrounding the buildings, if indeed it is built with additional retail. The biking comment was more-so about making the stadium district relevant on non-game days.

Fair enough.

This is all additional spending that wouldn't necessarily be needed (perhaps as much) as a more centrally-located facility. If you build a stadium on the outskirts the municipal servicing costs increases...and this includes transit as well as water, electric, roads, etc.

I would argue that additional transit to that area would have a spinoff benefit to the people who already work and shop in the DC/Burnside area.

Halifax should worry about getting its buses in order before even thinking about LRT beyond the potential for some commuter trains to Bedford and Lower Sackville.

Agreed. Halifax should have had its buses in order 20 years ago. LRT should be a reality for the near future... but alas, it's not.

This seems to be such a weird conversation. Some people think this team can survive with Halifax-only support, some see it as a mix, and the potential owners said that he expects 30%-50% of supporters will have to come in from outside of Halifax for the team to be successful [From a recent article in the T-J]. I would hate to see Halifax build a stadium so that people coming in from Moncton have somewhere to park. A stadium in Halifax should primarily be easy to reach for Halifax residents. If you begin to rely on fans from three hours away I immediately begin to worry about whatever metrics you're using for the viability of your sports franchise.

As has been discussed elsewhere in this thread, the Halifax CFL team would be seen more as a regional team than a Halifax team, given the relatively small geographical area of the Maritimes. Therefore, I think consideration should be made for those traveling in from other provinces, in addition to the rural areas and small towns of Nova Scotia.

It would be a potential trigger for sprawl, yes. Anything that potentially pushes the boundaries of built-up areas would be considered sprawl. Anything that directly increases the used land area for municipal servicing is sprawl. Building a marquee venue on the outskirts of town is the definition of sprawl.

Again, I would argue that this should be viewed as increased density in the city core.

Agreed and agreed.

A dead zone on the peninsula is probably less likely given the adjecency of nearby residents. This is the same sort of discussion people have when talking about dead downtowns: If a Downtown is dead after 5 it means everyone who works there has left to go home, usually in some suburban area. A vibrant downtown works well because it has people living in and near it, and the same works for a stadium. Obviously, outdoor stadiums are entirely unusable for six months of the year, so there is that point. At least with an arena you can have a year-round stream of events, from sports tenants to concerts to shows.

Additionally, elly63 had some good suggestions as to how to get more use out of the place.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...ttendance-issues-in-a-challenging-market

Thanks! I'm wondering if this would be an issue in Halifax, though? I'm guessing the traffic in Ottawa is worse than Halifax's?

Again, it's another aside, but it doesn't really matter all of the time if the team is good or not, really, especially in junior hockey. Mississauga has a number of future NHLers (McLeod, Tippett, Hague) and still can't get anyone to games. It's been a franchise-long difficulty, and part of the reason why the IceDogs left, as well (and the Battalion in Brampton). Mississauga is a city with 700K residents and they can barely crack 3K for hockey. Brampton was in a worse boat than them. Their arenas are in no-man's land unless you're willing to sit on a highway in traffic. Senators games lack attendance because people aren't willing to sit on a highway in traffic. What would Dartmouth Crossing look like if you had to get 20K people there by highway? The thing with a Peninsular stadium is that transit is already oriented (or could be more easily oriented) to deal with increased capacity for games. The routes and buses for commuters are already there to get people to the central location.

I wouldn't be surprised if the DC/Burnside area already handles those kind of traffic numbers at rush hours. Games would typically happen after rush hour dies down, so I don't imagine traffic would be that much of an issue. I would say it would be more of an issue trying to get 20K people out of the downtown all at once. Moosehead games and concerts have shown that half that number can tie up traffic and use up available parking quite well as it is.

The argument about having the team be a bigger deal is a fair one, and i've no doubt people in Halifax will turn out for the CFL (perhaps not 25K every other weekend like some suggest/expect, but 20K or somewhere around there).

I concur. I think it will be quite successful if it happens.