Quote:
Originally Posted by Hecate
No its lack of vision. It would have been a stadium, retail and a hotel with a WATERPARK. It would have been busy year round. The arena was built when the jets were gone. If it were built brand new when the jets return was announced it would have spurred much more development around it. Just look at Edmonton. The ice district is a success.
And just think about how a shopping mall generally works, one major anchor at each end and people walk between them. The beauty of the river views along waterfront would have made for one of the best pedestrian promenades in Canada. Lined with restaurant patios and bars. But nope no vision.
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Just because it doesn't align with your vision, doesn't mean there was no vision.
The U of M is kicking off what will likely be the densest neighbourhood in the city outside of downtown, with the most density at the stadium and Blue BRT line. Would it be anywhere near the same scale without those the stadium and BRT investments?
Point Douglas is looking at a revitalization plan as we speak, and there's no stadium. There's talks about creating a new national park spanning from the Forks all the way up to the Louise bridge. Is that not vision? Ideas? Hope?
A stadium spanning multiple city blocks that gets used at or near capacity for 9-10 football games per year amounts to less than 3% of the year, for about 4-5 hours of utility per instance. Add in the Valour home games where total annual attendance might sum one full stadium sellout plus the one special event every 3 years, and you have severely underutilized capacity that has quashed a whole section of potential alternative development. Add in parking lots/parkades and the problem is worse.
I would very much prefer to have such an imposing and out-of character structure in a more sterile and underdeveloped suburban area that is well serviced by transit (aka U of M), than imposing in the background of a lot of Waterfront and Exchange views.
And to throw in that the stadium in isolation would have revitalized the area is a bit far-fetched. The U of M doesn't have any more bars and there wasn't a huge surge in retail and restaurant development around the U of M since the stadium was built. There aren't enough stadium events to have a business hinge on clientele from these events.
We've even lamented this with the Jets, on how there isn't a huge bar/restaurant scene around the CLC, and when you do the math, even 41 home games is just 11% of the year where you might have an uptick in business. Not enough to rely on.
You need people living in these areas. If we want Point Douglas to be revitalized, it needs people with disposable income living there, not a stadium.
And as for a waterpark, people have been lamenting that for decades. If it would be truly profitable, a private developer would have put one in place already.
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