Talk of a new stadium in Halifax has been around for years, but council only took action when it decided earlier this year that a stadium could be used to chase a bid for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament, even though Trade Centre Limited had advised against pursuing the bid. In February council created a Stadium Steering Committee and agreed to pay $97,000 for a “Phase 1 Study” conducted by consulting firm Sierra Planning and Development; that study came back to council Tuesday with a recommendation for a Phase 2 Study costing $275,000 and hopes of getting a firm commitment to a stadium by FIFA’s December bid deadline.
The Phase 1 study is, frankly, underwhelming. At 113 pages and two appendixes, the text is often repetitive, contains numerous typos and much of the information was garnered apparently by using Google searches. The Steering Committee did, however, conduct interviews with 17 groups that might use a stadium, and boasts in the report that “the Halifax Stadium Facebook Page had a total of 154 monthly active users and the Halifax Stadium Twitter Page had a total of 94 followers.”
Councillors appeared evenly split on the issue, with doubters saying there are too many capital projects in play currently, but with stadium enthusiasts citing the big promises of economic return. Clear supporters of at least moving to the Phase 2 study included Darren Fisher, Dawn Sloane, Barry Dalrymple, Bill Karsten (Edit, August 5, see below), Jim Smith, Jerry Blumenthal, Sue Uteck, Russell Walker, Debbie Hum, Tim Outhit and mayor Peter Kelly. The other councillors were either clearly in opposition, with councillors MGloria McCluskey, Jennifer Watts and Steve Streatch leading that pack, or non-commital.
A couple of points were brought out in the debate: the proposed stadium with 10,000 permanent seats and room for 10,000 more temporary seats would be too small for a CFL franchise, would not contain a track and would have an annual operating deficit of about a half million dollars.
During a break in the meeting, mayor Peter Kelly polled councillors individually about whether to continue the debate Tuesday night or postpone it to next week. This “serial meeting” of councillors was not agendized and was not open to the public; the vote was not taken in public, nor was it recorded. Some would maintain this violated public meeting laws, but in any event all we have is Kelly’s word that the majority of councillors decided to postpone the discussion until next week, and so it was.
Note, August 5: Bill Karsten writes to say he hasn’t made up his mind on the proposal.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2011.
Why waste another $275,000 for a white elephant ?
Will 10,000 people spend the money to watch Ghana v Mexico ?
Why does HRM staff and council force the Sportsplex, the Forum, Cole Harbour Place etc to operate at a surplus but have different rules for a stadium which will be used for just 50 events ?
The study purports to have been based on interviews with 17 key stakeholders – ten by meeting and 7 by telephone.
Of the 17 “key stakeholders” :
5 were sports organization
4 were government and near government agencies including the Mayor (and the CAO), Scott Fergusson (TCL), Greater Halifax Partnership and Events Nova Scotia
4 were traveling tours of other stadium facilities
2 Universities (Dal and SMU)
The Department of National Defense (the only new site considered apparently)
The Atlantic Loto Corporation
Of these 17 “key stakeholders” only the Atlantic Loto Corporation could be viewed as not being hopelessly of conflicted interest.
It was also made very clear in the media that the “citizen committee” were all deeply biased and conflicted stadium boasters and no one who wasn’t 100% on board was invited to be on the cheerleading committee.
The Steering Committee recommends building a stadium based, in part, on the fact that the Halifax Stadium Facebook page has 154 users?
The Step Down Peter Kelly Facebook page has more than twice that number. Maybe His Worship should look at those numbers instead.
275K just to host a soccer game? give me the money, and I’ll rent you a farmers field for the summer.
154 likes on facebook, I bet one of you guys could host a dislikes facebook page and get more support.
Didn’t get much for $100,000 did we ?
Show me the invoices.
Wow. 154 people. Must be a small stadium.
The first thing consultants “recommend” is to continue with a more extensive , ie, expensive study. The consultant making the recommendation is of course the most logical choice for the second study. From what I have seen of this “study” it was set up for one purpose only, to support Kelly’s plan to funnel as much public sector money into the hands of the consultants and developers as possible. This decision should be put off until after the next municipal elections when Kelly and most of his gang of 12 are gone.