Halifax Stadium Discussion

[dmont]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

To be honest, I almost chickened out on today's meeting. But I am very glad that I went through with it. Everyone in the Halifax area should be grateful in be in such a friendly part of Canada. The Councillors were great and allowed me to get a picture with them holding a model of a proposed stadium that I took with me to Halifax (I left the model with Councillor Sloane and it is now at City Hall). I also enjoyed seeing Halifax City Hall, it is a great old building.

I received the following message from Councillor Sloane upon returning home (I am back in Ontario now):

Hi Kevin,
It was very nice to meet you today. I hope that you enjoyed meeting with myself and the other Councillors.
As stated in the meeting, the next step should be a meeting of all interested groups so that a cohesive team can start to work together on the scope and to move the members vision forward.

By way of this email, I am requesting that the Mayor to aid in the contact of the other interested parties for another meeting in approximately 3 weeks.

Furthermore, I am requesting that our financial staff to aid with the proposed trust fund idea. Councillor Hendsbee is versed on this and I am requesting that he work on this part of the action.

Thank you again for meeting with us and I look forward to the next steps.
Dawn

Cordially,
Dawn Marie Sloane
District 12 Councillor
Halifax - Downtown
Halifax Regional Municipality

[email protected]


I now realize that the stadium is not a dead project but may very well happen through the city council and HRM residents. The financial support of stadium proponents will be necessary though. There is a strong possibility that a stadium fund can be set up through the HRM and might even be tax deductible (this would be a big bonus).

Here is a picture of the architectural model for the stadium 3D model and the picture taken with the Halifax Councillors.

Left to Right: Councillor David Hendsbee, Councillor Dawn Sloane, Councillor Jerry Blumenthal and me (Kevin Langille). Councillor Jennifer Watts was also present but had to leave the meeting before the picture was taken.


Here is a close up of the model, there wasn't time to finish the base and landscaping. However, I want to give my thanks to Ho Tran Nguyen (Ryerson Interior Design Bachelors Degree program) who worked many late hours along with his wife in getting it done in time for the meeting.

Well done, fenwick You did a great job and I'm impressed.

You're the boss, let me know if I can be of any help in phase II

dmont

[fenwick16]

Thanks for your comments dmont, and also Empire, Harlington, Worldlyhaligonian, Bedford_DJ, cormiermax, MaritimeCFLFan and Terrynorthend. We need support from all involved to make this a reality. Also, I have to tip my hat to Harlington (Sean) who a couple of weeks sent the previous compilation report to the councillors and really got the ball moving on this.

I am looking forward to the next meeting in 2 - 3 weeks. I will keep everyone up to date on the progress.

Originally Posted by dmont

Well done, fenwick You did a great job and I'm impressed.

You're the boss, let me know if I can be of any help in phase II

dmont

[-Harlington-]

its great that things are starting to work with this, it sucks i couldnt make the meeting since i was the one that emailed them, but what can you do.
ill definitly try to make the next one, and i hope more people can as well.
i think once this trust fund is up and running, should we go 2 for 2 with the corporate sponsors

[someone123]

It's nice to see things progressing. I think this is more how things should have gone to begin with - lots of people in Halifax want a stadium, but plans like the CWGs were much more contentious because they involved costs for many other things that people didn't care about as much.

It will take time, but it's totally feasible to have a decent stadium in a city like Halifax and once that happens other things like a CFL team will naturally follow. It's also possible to continue the project without funding by getting council to commit to a study, selecting a final site, producing more renderings, and so on.

[Keith P.]

This was deemed worthy of an article in allnovascotia.com today and the tone was favorable.

[dmont]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

This was deemed worthy of an article in allnovascotia.com today and the tone was favorable.

What did it say? Could you link or copy and paste?

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by dmont

What did it say? Could you link or copy and paste?

I cannot do that since they use a proprietary interface that prevents that (subscription-only, and they defend that vigorously), though somebody here has overcome it IIRC.

[worldlyhaligonian]

Ctrl-Alt-Print Screen

[MaritimeCFLFan]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

I cannot do that since they use a proprietary interface that prevents that (subscription-only, and they defend that vigorously), though somebody here has overcome it IIRC.

I'd also be interested to see what is being said on this subject.

[fenwick16]

In spite of my enthusiasm after the January 18 City Hall meeting, it appears as though the HRM is not interested in setting up a trust fund at this time. I still believe that the HRM will have a proper stadium sometime in the not too distant future. Unfortunately, it seems like there are too many other HRM projects proceeding at this time to think about a new HRM stadium (just my opinion). There are several projects that are important to the HRM such as the Harbour Solutions, Convention Centre and Central Library.

For now, I can see that the idea of SMU renovating the SMU Huskies Stadium is likely the best chance of Halifax getting a larger stadium. Does anyone have any connections with the SMU Athletics' Director? I think there are many people who would be interesting in contributing money to a SMU capital fund for renovating SMU stadium. Since most universities are set up to accept tax deductible donations they could likely set up a stadium fund quite easily if they have a desire to proceed. A stadium like Montreal's Percival Molson Stadium would be great for a CFL team in Halifax.

[MaritimeCFLFan]

So does this mean there is to be no meeting in the next few weeks now?

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by MaritimeCFLFan

So does this mean there is to be no meeting in the next few weeks now?

I have been told that they are working with another group regarding the stadium concept. Maybe something will come of that; for now there isn't another meeting planned.

I don't want to sound negative since there really might be something else going on. That is my hope. Based on the meeting on January 18, the councillors in attendance certainly seemed to have gathered a lot of information on stadiums. I get the feeling that there are city councillors who would like to have a stadium, the question in my mind is how many. I think somebody should do an unbiased poll of HRM residents and see what proportion wants an HRM stadium.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

I have been told that they are working with another group regarding the stadium concept. Maybe something will come of that; for now there isn't another meeting planned.

Probably Dawn Sloane's absurd floating stadium idea.

[DigitalNinja]

Floating stadium?
As a current SMU student, I'd love to see the stadium renovated, they just tore out another section of the concrete seats last year.
They are going to re do their hockey rink as well, I saw a sign out in-front of that.

[fenwick16]

The HRM councillors did try to get the Commonwealth Games in the Halifax area. Personally I feel there must be a cheaper way to get a stadium built in Halifax than through the Commonwealth Games but I can certainly see that they have tried.

To go ahead with a stadium then something else would likely have to be dropped such as the convention centre or library. Both of these are important to the Halifax area. What would bother me would be if $100 million was spent on a new 12,000 seat Metro Centre. If it gets to the point of spending $100 million simply to have an extra 1500 seats in a new hockey arena then I think HRM residents would need to seriously question the councillors on why it is more important than a new stadium. However, it is tough to argue against a new convention centre or new library.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

Floating stadium?
As a current SMU student, I'd love to see the stadium renovated, they just tore out another section of the concrete seats last year.
They are going to re do their hockey rink as well, I saw a sign out in-front of that.

Could you speak to the SMU Athletics (Steve Sarty, http://www.smu.ca/athletics/staff-coaches.html ) and let him know that there are people willing to contribute money and time promoting a new SMU stadium. Especially if it will be big enough with temporary seating for a CFL team (20,000 - 25,000 seats). I think this is the best bet for the Halifax area. For the sake of HRM sports fans I think the the HRM should also be willing to contribute money to a new SMU stadium (it would certainly cost them far less than a new city owned stadium). I just hope that the HRM won't say that they need to get a big sporting event to fund it. That isn't the case for other HRM area public works projects.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Probably Dawn Sloane's absurd floating stadium idea.

Having met Dawn Sloane she is far more rational than you might think. Certainly she contributes a lot of her time to civic matters and helping HRM residents. The Vancouver Whitecaps had a similar proposal floating around at one time.

[hfx_chris]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

As a current SMU student, I'd love to see the stadium renovated, they just tore out another section of the concrete seats last year.

As would I. I've said it before, and yes I'm going to say it again - a new stadium should be on the agenda, but in the meantime Huskies Stadium desperately needs to be renovated and expanded. If Huskies' could be expanded to say 10-12k permanent seats expandable to 15-20k with temporary seating, HRM should be able to land a couple more CFL exhibition (or regular season) games to further test the waters and drum up excitement and public support for a new stadium.
The stadium needs to be renovated regardless, they would be missing a huge opportunity if they didn't also expand.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by hfx_chris

As would I. I've said it before, and yes I'm going to say it again - a new stadium should be on the agenda, but in the meantime Huskies Stadium desperately needs to be renovated and expanded. If Huskies' could be expanded to say 10-12k permanent seats expandable to 15-20k with temporary seating, HRM should be able to land a couple more CFL exhibition (or regular season) games to further test the waters and drum up excitement and public support for a new stadium.
The stadium needs to be renovated regardless, they would be missing a huge opportunity if they didn't also expand.

Who is willing to contact the SMU person in charge of Athletics, Steve Sarty http://smuphone.smu.ca/script/employeeinfo.asp?empid=208 . I can see now that this is the best way to proceed in order to get a stadium in the foreseeable future.

If someone could email Steve Sarty then they could send a link to this thread and references to funding a renovated SMU stadium. I am sure that SMU would be happy to accept people's contributions to renovating the Huskies Stadium.

[c-way-dude]

Does anyone think it would be worthwhile to go ahead with the trust fund without the HRM?
I am curious Fenwick, were the councillors you met with aware of another group working towards a stadium beforehand?