Lansdowne Park Redevelopment Phase 1 | Completed

[Fatty McButterpants]

Originally Posted by alecz_dad

This latest revelation again begs the question of why it was thought to be such a good idea to try to renovate the very unremarkable Civic Centre complex, when it would likely have been possible to build a new stadium from scratch for about as much.

The answer, it is becoming increasingly clear, is that by tying the restoration of the stadium and the return of CFL football, to a scheme for the redevelopment of public lands at Lansdowne involving the construction of a private shopping centre, private condos and private office building -- the de facto privatization of Lansdowne -- with the City's debt to be repaid through a magic money waterfall repayment system, that the City was being handcuffed to the private deal. Once both aspects of the deal were cemented in the public imagination, the chance that the City might back out to go it alone on redeveloping Lansdowne, or to build a new stadium elsewhere, was remote.

Bravo, Mr. Greenberg! Well played.

I agree that a refurbished stadium is lame. This thing is going to be a huge disappointment once the initial novelty wears off. The park and retail aspects of the development look fine to me, but the patch job on the sports facilities is pretty embarassing.