I retract what I said about Bratina showing leadership re: the stadium. Re-reading the stories of the day, he was actually more of a middleman than anything in the decision to reconstruct at the IWS site.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainKirk
With all due respect, I understand your opinion, but again, completely disagree.
If you'll recall, the old Ivor Wynne stadium site was chosen onlly because council was led to believe that there was only enough money for half of a stadium. The north stands were supposed to remain, and only the south side was to be demolished and rebuilt.
Council agreed. made sense at the time, but lo and behold, looky, looky, sometime later it was established that there was enough money for a whole new stadium after all.
IMO, council was duped.
My question is: Was Bratina a duper or dupee?
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Yes they were led to believe it was the cheapest option, also with the fewest site-related risks. And it was the only one acceptable to the Cats that could be agreed upon before the latest deadline that had been imposed by the Pan Am committee. And Young's 180 on what would make for a profitable franchise was an amazing spin
.
Then it turned out to be more expensive, so the province topped up funding... then it turned out the north stands couldn't be renovated to current building codes, but apparently could be rebuilt within budget... then the decision to re-orient the field... then the underwhelming design that had limited local input... What's next?
I don't want to revisit the whole debate, but I don't agree with how the city handled the stadium, nor with how the Ti-Cats handled it, nor with how the Pan Am organizers have handled it either. This is a prime case study in how
not to plan and execute a project.
Right now all I want is to watch some football there.