I heard the news while driving down Trollope Street by Citadel High. I had to pay especially careful attention, because crater-like potholes were everywhere. I had just driven from Barrington Street and the downtown zone was somewhat reminiscent of war-torn Beirut. There were more empty storefronts than I can recall in a lifetime.
Meanwhile the talk radio station suggested a CFL team and an all-purpose stadium were what we really need. A poll had just been released that declared it practically an urban necessity. How else could we become the “world-class” city they demanded? I nearly drove into the ditch as I listened. It occurred to me that we were getting our wants and our needs discombobulated.
I like my sports as much as the next guy. I could be convinced that Halifax can fill a 25,000-seat stadium for eight home games a year. After all, we would have the whole of Atlantic Canada to draw from. Everybody likes to come to Halifax. And CFL fans are nutty in a very good way.
But the cost of a stadium would be a financial drag on this region for a lifetime. We can’t generate an annual revenue stream that would make it feasible, much less sustainable. Five rock acts and a football team do not a business make. In fact, they don’t come within a Hail Mary pass of success. What’s more, $250 million could do so much good in other areas—we all have a preferential list.
Truth to tell, there are so many opinions floating around right now like an errant forward pass. One of the more compelling suggestions is that a plebiscite might instead be held. Educate people on the pros and cons and then put it to a specific vote. That way the process would be transparent and embrace all points of view. It would also take politicians (somewhat) off the hook. But we should be careful what we collectively wish for. Plebiscites in most jurisdictions are a last ditch mechanism, only selected for the rarest decisions. If we turn to a plebiscite to answer this particular quandary, what will we use it for next? It is a dreadfully slippery slope. Speaking of which, I have a gravel road which I would love to see paved as soon as possible. But it is slightly controversial. Could we put this one to the people in a plebiscite also, and see what ultimately sticks?
I think the numbers will speak for themselves. But precisely who will crunch these controversial figures properly?
How about our recently retired auditor general, Jacques Lapointe? If he can make it work, then I am in. Put me down for season tickets at the 40-yard line. But if Lapointe can’t do what I can’t do, then let’s get back to reality. Fill the potholes first. Fill the vacant real estate on Barrington and elsewhere. Then take another look at this dreamer’s scheme in 10 years or so.
Meanwhile, if the key to an all-purpose stadium is ownership of a CFL team in Halifax, we need to know the details. We need someone or many folks to step forward. The sooner the better. Would our model be Regina where the team is community owned? Or would we look for someone in the private sector to put up the cash? We have heard no specifics to date.
And is there actually commercial and promotional value in a professional football franchise in Halifax in 2014? Could we sell the corporate boxes that the model inevitably requires? Could we use the stadium more than a handful of days per year? Mr. Bragg and Mr. Sobey, you are highly respected business folks, what exactly do you think? If you are willing to embrace the risk of a stadium and a team, then I am in.
Perhaps the private sector sees a benefit here and a opportunity that the rest of us are rightly afraid of. I acknowledge football would be exciting and undoubtedly popular. What’s more, I am certain many of us would support the Halifax Cable Ties if we didn’t have to pay for the stadium.
Stewart Lamont is managing director, at Tangier Lobster Company on the Eastern Shore, an hour and ten minute drive from downtown lots and lots of potholes.
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This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2014.
Soooo, I guess a solid gold statue of the Sugar Smacks frog is out of the question, then?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SA32PnEgKqg/US1T…
Thank you Mr Lamont, you have provided an excellent solution to the stupid notion of a CFL franchise and stadium. Many parts of our province are bankrupt and this push by Rick Howe and 100 other people does not represent the wishes of HRM residents.
I’m sympathetic to the idea that we have to be careful about sinking too much money into a stadum–cities from Montreal to Edmonton have piled on debt to pay for overpriced stadiums. But we can’t create a laundry list of bigger issues and say we can’t tackle a stadium until every pothole is filled or every homeless person housed. Cities have to aim for the best, but simultaneously work toward achievable goals.
Lamont also kills his credibility by repeating the stupid old saw that Barrington is some sort of dilapidated hellzone. Barrington is in better shape than it’s been in years, and to call it like “war-torn Beirut” is totally idiotic, for two reasons: Beirut is no longer war-town, and no, Barrington, even at its nadir, never resembled this: http://www.wired.com/news/images/full/beir…
That transcends hyperbole and becomes stupidity. The idea that Barrington is a dead zone has become a cliché, increasingly out of step with the facts. It’s a street seeing a slow but steady and obvious resurgence. If there are “more empty storefronts” than he can recall in a lifetime, he’s got a short memory. (At least half the empty storefronts are currently due to renovation and re-construction projects, in any case.)
Anyway, it’s also the peculiar rural-appeasing weirdness of HRM that some guy who lives an hours’ drive away in some tiny village is still within the technical boundaries of the city, and complains about his gravel road. Buddy, you live in the country. Deal with it. Your community wasn’t even a part of the city until 1996, and it still shouldn’t be. The HRM amalgamation was the furthest reaching of all the municipal amalgamations that swept the country in the 90s, and it’s completely ludicrous. Bedford and Dartmouth made sense to bring int the fold of Halifax, but the Eastern Shore? Absurdity.
In short, we have to be cautious about a stadium–but not for the reasons Lamont suggests.
It is obvious to me that no one involved in this ludicrous idea of this city needing a CFL stadium have ever had a loved one undergo treatment at the VG (specifically the Centennial building). Conditions at this “Hospital” are more(less?) than deplorable, they are outright bordering on third-world conditions. While the care received is second to none the conditions that caregivers and patients have to endure are not conducive to healing. The water in the building contains enough bacteria to force Capital Health to warn patients not to drink or even shower using the building’s water. All the people involved in this laughable idea should perhaps pay the VG a visit, and I hope God forbid it is not for cancer treatments.
A cab driver once pointed out the barracks at Shannon Park, hypothetical proposed stadium grounds, and said, “why not turn this into affordable housing instead?” What with Millbrook First Nation asking for a portion of that land, and talk of creating a green community there in the past, I appreciated the cabbie’s dream that city space might serve real, existing needs.
No Stadium, please people, think of all the poor people who need decent housing. The stadium will only help the elite. With heat, tax, and other costs rising my family of four in a simple duplex is falling behind each day. Mayor Savage and Councillors, do not give one cent for this, remember election time is coming in 2016. Halifax is part of this depressed Province of Nova Scotia, we cannot afford a stadium.
This is starting to sound like the ‘convincing’ that went into borrowing ~$12million to build a new farmer’s market in Halifax. You know — build it and they will come, 7 days a week, by the thousands. When in fact they come one day a week by the hundreds. Now look at the financial situation of that market. Seriously, Coast, LOOK at it. Maybe you can redirect this stadium talk before another white elephant gets built and the taxpayers get stuck with the tab.
Hye Trevor Curwin:
#1: $12 million is not an extraordinary amount of money for a large-scale piece of civic infrastructure. (A stadium will be vastly more expensive than the market, so they’re not really comparable.)
#2: The Seaport Market is a fantastic facility, among the best of its kind I’ve seen anywhere in the world.
#3: It’s packed to the rafters Saturdays, and is increasingly busy on Sundays. Business throughout the remainder of the week is growing, slowly.
#4: It provides a valuable venue for local businesses to reach customers they otherwise might not.
#5: Thousands and thousands of Haligonians love it for both the merchandise and its role as a gathering and event space.
#6: It’s a tourist attraction. (Seriously.)
You sound like a crank who just doesn’t like it because you hate when the government spends money on things that don’t appeal to you personally. Too bad.
Admittedly, the viability of a six-day-a-week market was oversold, no doubt. Weekday business can still be improved in spring/summer thanks to tourism, but no, weekdays will never look like Saturdays–even Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market is sleepy on weekdays, except during lunch hour, and it’s still not that busy, even then. That’s the reality of a market like this.
But the city and really, the province, got an incredible facility, and now we can improve it. Enough moaning and groaning about it, please.
A stadium? A CFL team? LOL! We can’t even support a basketball team and we didn’t have to build anything for them. Andre Levingston is on 95.7 weekly, begging people to come out and support a Halifax sports franchise. Until the Mooseheads were actual contenders, you couldn’t give those tickets away. Halifax has proven itself to be a non-sports minded population and I highly doubt a half billion dollar stadium and a losing CFL team will draw anything worth that type of public investment.
Sad world to live in when the ideas of the greedy few win over the needs of the less unfortunate….
I’d like to see just 10% of the interest the Coast has in the Convention Centre directed to the Seafart Market but for some reason it escapes all attention.
Sorry, Pigeon, the financials speak for themselves.
Seriously though, I can’t think of any other enterprise in Halifax that doesn’t hit so many of the buttons that calls The Coast to investigate and report on. Alarm bell should be going off in The Coast HQ. What gives?
@ pigeon
We were vendors at the market, and successful ones at that. I don’t need to be sold on farmer’s markets — I think they’re critical. I’m not even against spending government money on one, if it came down to that.
What I have a problem with is how this particular market got built. Every taxpayer, farmer’s market fan, vendor and citizen shouldn’t be scared to investigate that.
And to your points –no, Sundays are not getting especially better (and even if they turned into another Saturday crowd, it would still be too little…I know, math sucks but there it is, again…I know it can make shiny dreams turn into dross but it is what it is)
The rest of the week there is dead. It’s not picking up. It never will without some infrastructure changes and about 30 years of downtown growth (of course, which everyone will hate for view plane reasons or the like). Ask some real vendors.
Even Saturdays, you’re confronted with a lot of “tourists” from your own neighborhood – Tim Hortons in hand, hunting for free samples. The actual dependable buyers at the market (which is how vendors stay in business) are a hardcore subset of what you see on Saturdays. And that’s with a market with some real standout vendors too.
It’s a nice venue…but if you’ve never seen a better farmer’s market building, you need to get out more. If you want to see a properly sized, properly focused and well run market, you could start with Wolfville.
Yes it is an important venue for small business owners, especially new immigrants — but I’m not sure that’s the port’s plan for that space now.
I’m skeptical about how much of a tourist attraction it is. If you mean it’s beside the place where cruise ships disembark, well, I could say Emera’s HQ is a tourist attraction then. But “tourists” are part of the issue to the vendors trying to make a living. I suppose it might bring people in for a day from out in the country, but they’d come for something else too.
It really, really, really scares me that the place I grew up only wants people to “be positive” (or “be bold” as they currently prefer) and want to silence any questioning of expensive schemes with a history of zero community and financial payback as “cranky.”
Pretty sad. Just smile and wave and dream I guess….Hope we get a good cabinet minister in Ottawa next election…
How much money did the taxpayers spend on the Seafart Market?
Impressive how many facts are wrong.
A cfl team plays 10 not 8 games per year + possibly a playoff game and a grey cup every 10 years.
A cfl stadium can be built for under $200m for a 25k seat stadium, Hamilton just but Timmie’s field for ~$180m and you’d hope construction costs in Halifax is less then the GTA.
Now add to that 1 single Greg cup alone brings in $100 million plus in economic activity. Meaning full hotel rooms, restaurants, flights and so on. Add on building a stadium will create temporary jobs for 1-2 years and the team itself will employ 50-60 people and another 50+ players a year.
That means tax revenue collected from the stadium pays it off pretty quickly then it creates tax revenue for the prov and city.
That’s not factoring in large scale concerts, potentially a soccer team or hosting vanier cups/other major events that currently pass by Halifax… But that’s the actual facts unlike what’s in the article. If a city doesn’t do something because all potholes need to be fixed, nothing would ever be built.