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Originally Posted by someone123
I don't think this is a good way to look at it. This is a part of the public Commons and can be reconfigured. There's really nothing special about the Bengal Lancers' site configuration, Garrison Grounds, alignment of Bell Road, etc. If there were 15,000 seats there that sold out regularly (including for concerts or whatever) then there would eventually be enough political capital to modify that whole area. Just like how they cleared out another part to build a pool or the skating oval or whatever. It's been interesting to see how the Wanderers shifted the political conversation around this public land use.
The incremental expansion can be justified as a public project that is independent from the CFL. They can build something now and then in 5 or 10 years add to it. Just as they built the 6,500 seat mini stadium and are looking at expanding it today. If this isn't good enough for the CFL then so be it but my guess is that's, well, basically just a bad take, and the medium stadium would be strictly better than the small stadium whereas there would have been no progress on an imaginary Grey Cup stadium anywhere in Atlantic Canada.
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I think over by the Oval is a better site for a permanent stadium, but I bet there is no political will for that.
The thing being overlooked when talking about number of seats at the current Wanderers Grounds, is those are temporary portable bleachers. The CFL isn't going to go for a stadium made up entirely of portable benches, no matter how you squeeze them onto that site. A permanent structure takes up a lot more room. Esquire mentioned THF and the 24k seats. And when I say seats, I mean chairs, not benches. Chairs take space. It also has suites, press boxes, actual washrooms, concessions, amenity spaces, locker rooms. It's a large structure that in no way would fit on the Wanderers site, even if you knock down the stables, lawn bowling and close Bell St. The north grandstand would be sitting on top of the museum in order to fit the south side inside of Sackville St.
And honestly, I can't see why the soccer team would want to share a facility with a CFL team that is triple or 4x the seats they need. I think it would be a detriment to the fan experience and hurt ticket sales playing in something that big. They need to come up with a way to build a fan friendly right-sized stadium where they are now and if there is a demand for a CFL stadium, find the right place for it elsewhere.
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