Checking what might be characterized as unbridled local enthusiasm for a bid to host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup championship, city staff has put the possibility of building a stadium in more measured terms: make sure a stadium fits the city’s long-term recreation and facility needs, says staffer Doug Rafuse. “We need to have a business case,” he says. “That doesn’t mean a stadium pays for itself, but it means we’ll know going into this there’s going to be an annual cost, and what that cost is.” A staff report to council recommends figuring out what kind of stadium the public wants and what the cost of running such a facility would be, before committing to chasing the FIFA bid. Council thought that was a good idea Tuesday, so approved $100,000 to do just that.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
The Maritimes only need one stadium. The one in Moncton is the most central and can easily serve us all. Why can’t we accept this and move forward?
As for FIFA, a woman’s soccer tournament is hardly a major attraction. It won’t draw even 1% of the attention or revenues the upcoming GSP fight in Toronto will.
HIT- as I see it, a stadium earns its keep (or doesn’t) on bread and butter local uses– high school football games, soccer leagues, track meets, provincial championships, recreational walkers (that’s a huge use in existing stadiums, weird), beer leagues and the like. These folk won’t drive to Moncton for this stuff. The idea is you have city-run recreation programmatic use day-in, day-out, and then maybe the occasional concert or big event that’s gravy. You don’t build for the gravy, is the point.
Whether the local uses justify stadium costs is an open question. I think they might. It’s worth investigating, anyway.
On FIFA, I’ll have a blog post soon. Personally, I think we should probably avoid the organization altogether.
It’s definitely worth investigating. And hopefully will eventually come to fruition.
We’ll call it ‘Kelly’s Folly’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly
What’s next an Opera/Symphony/Ballet House ? …….http://www.oslooperahouse.com/
Yeah, that really would put us on the map. Keep all our artistes busy.
A little dancy dancy, then some Shostakovitch sprinkled with a some ear splitting Stockhausen and then on to ‘Nixon in China’.
Don’t worry folks, it’s only money.
“The Maritimes only need one stadium. The one in Moncton is the most central and can easily serve us all. Why can’t we accept this and move forward? “
The Maritimes only need one SUITABLE stadium. Monton’s isn’t that stadium. Even with its (temporary) added seating it’s unsuitably small for a permanent CFL franchise.
Good Lord, seriously? Halifax is nowhere near corrupt enough to attract the likes of FIFA. Then again, it’s only women’s football and no one cares about that anyway.
they should combine the stadium with the convention center and a pool/gymnasium and place it in shannon park. multi-function with lots of parking.
In yesterday’s herald there is the headline City to establish stadium team in it we are told, ” When regional council authorized a $100,000 feasibility study into the project on Tuesday, they also approved the terms of reference for a project steering committee.” We’ve already paid for this study under the Commonwealth games Bunch and were told that, “even with a CFL team a stadium would be a financial burden on the HRM taxpayer.” Why then are we throwing good money after bad. Why doesn’t the Mayor just read the existing study (if he is allowed to by now he couldn’t get a copy of a few years ago). Sir Winston Churchill said, “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” which is exactly what the local governments are doing spending money they don’t have against future tax hikes and more debt.
Another oft seen quote is “you can’t spend you way out of debt”, who said it originally I don’t know but the truth should be self evident to even a teenager. Why then is it so hard to get this point across to our elected officials? Your HRM tax bill will soon be a second mortgage payment at this rate and people won’t be able to afford to live in the city.
WAKE UP city council you’re squandering OUR money, all of these things have to be paid for by us. If you insist on supporting every economic white elephant that comes along sign on the dotted line and do it with your own money. If it’s too much of a financial disaster for private business then its too much of a financial disaster for us the tax payers.
Bruce DeVenne
BruceD– the Commonwealth Games did the stadium study ass-backwards. They designed a stadium for the specific needs of the CG, then said, OK, what else can we use this for? That study is now worthless. The point is to say, OK, what does the community want in the way of a long-term operations of a stadium? Can we design for those wants, and then somehow shoe-horn in the specific needs for special events? This approach is reasonable. I’m not saying I blindly support the construction of a stadium– it really depends on the details– but we’ve gotta start with what the community wants for the long haul. Nobody’s ever looked into that with any detail before. Certainly not the Commonwealth Games bid committee, which spent a lot of money getting us nothing worthwhile at all.
Tim
That was simply a start you missed the whole point of my article. You canot spend your way out of debt. The smaller the stadium the fewer events that can be staged there the larger the stadium the greater the upkeep costs. It a lose lose situation for HRM. We have the hiskies stadium for school events, As we’ve aeen seats can be added to that existing stadium if needed. Expand the SMU stadium with 3-4 thousand seats and that will meet our needs. Remember Sir Winston Churchill said, “I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” and you can’t spend your way out of debt both describe the inane actions of Dexter and Kelly