Council fumbling Pan-am bid: Braley
A mistake to drop Confederation Park option, he says
January 15, 2009
Rob Faulkner and John Kernaghan
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/496471
Hamilton city council made a bad call in rejecting the best stadium location available.
That's the view of an original architect of the Pan American Games bid, businessman David Braley.
The auto-parts magnate was shocked that council Monday deleted Confederation Park from consideration. He said that east-end gateway location presents the best chance to generate long-term revenue to cover operating costs of a $150-million facility. The 27,000-seat stadium would be home to track and field for the Games, then become a multi-use facility and home to the Ticats.
Braley, who took the Pan Am concept to council last April, said it is shortsighted to not fully examine a site identified by city staff as one of four contenders.
But no one on council yesterday showed much appetite for getting Confederation Park back onto a front-burner.
And the president of Toronto 2015, which is assembling the Golden Horseshoe-wide bid, said none of the three remaining sites presents a problem as part of a bid book to be submitted April 30.
Also, Jagoda Pike said the distance between Toronto and Hamilton isn't a drawback.
The 2015 bid company is expected to recommend an athletes village for Toronto with track and field competitors bused to and from the Hamilton stadium.
Pike said her group is waiting for a preferred site from Hamilton, the only city Toronto 2015 has been talking to about a stadium.
Braley, meantime, laid out the business plan for the Confederation site. He stressed public ownership of the land, a mere eight-hectare dent in an 83-hectare site, and the possibility of private partners bringing more attractions to a site that already has a water park.
Braley, who sits on an eight- member Hamilton Pan Am community advisory board, said parking at the site and naming rights for the stadium would be lucrative long-term revenue streams.
The proximity to the QEW would elevate the value of naming rights and enhance Hamilton's image.
The Confederation Park site could be revisited later, said businessman Ron Foxcroft, an advisory board member.
"The key is winning the bid. Then you can make changes to locations and facilities. But you have to win."
Meantime, upset with the vote to kill the possibility of Confederation Park hosting a Pan Am Games stadium, Councillor Bob Bratina wants a study of future waterfront uses.
Bratina plans to ask staff to survey Lake Ontario sites and to advise council on the potential for acceptable recreational, residential and commercial developments. He felt councillors didn't have the information they needed about the area before Monday's vote.
"Whether we can revisit the stadium proposal remains to be seen, but I am trying to get the robust kind of discussion we did not get at the Pan Am presentation."
Still on the short list are the unserviced airport lands, the cramped downtown and the complex west harbourfront area.
There doesn't seem to be a move afoot to overturn the vote, which would need a supporter to change his or her mind, with two-thirds of council support.
Confederation Park is big, undeveloped, with highway access and waterfront views; but it also has noise and odours due to the QEW, has limited "legacy" impact due to its distance from population and transit, and needs upgraded water and sewer servicing.
But Councillor Brian McHattie, who supported Collins, says all three remaining sites have problems, so the list must be expanded. Downtown likely doesn't have a site big enough, housing is planned for the west harbour, and the airport is too far away.
Terry Whitehead, who opposed the Collins motion and is on the local community advisory committee for the bid, wants more creative ideas such as building atop Bernie Arbour Stadium and relocating its current activities.
He worries about the looming deadline to put a site forward, but says site selection need not be perfected during the bidding process.
"It's a bit of a game. You can change the location after a decision has been rendered, as I understand it, but you need something to go forward," he said.
Councillor Tom Jackson, who backed Chad Collins' motion to drop Confederation Park due to the loss of greenspace, said many National Football League stadiums are in suburbs outside the city the team represents. He likes the airport, south Mountain and west harbour, but doesn't want to rule out an Ivor Wynne retrofit.
Other Collins supporters, such as Sam Merulla and Bernie Morelli, likewise have no interest in repeating the vote on Confederation Park.
Morelli is waiting on staff to report back on the three remaining options before picking his preferred site. Merulla says the list should be expanded to include Turner Park, at Rymal and Upper Wentworth.
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