Manitoba Premier Gary Doer says a deal for a new football stadium in Winnipeg could be completed in January. Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz has signed off on the project. And now Manitoba’s federal conservative lieutenant Vic Toews, says, “the discussions are moving forward positively.”
That’s all great news, but for the most part, it’s still news to Winnipeg businessman, David Asper, the man behind the deal. He says he “doesn’t have a clue,” what’s going to happen.
Almost two years ago, Asper presented a plan to build a brand new football stadium in his home town, take over proprietorship of the community-owned Winnipeg Blue Bombers and, in theory, rescue the financially fragile franchise.
Over a period of about 23 months, Asper’s original idea has morphed into a 35,000-40,000-seat state of the art football complex at the University of Manitoba. It will service both the U of M and the Winnipeg Football Club as well as Manitoba’s amateur athletic community. The training rooms will be available to the public, a bubble will be built inside the facility for winter practices and amateur groups will be invited to use the building at a nominal fee.
As well, Asper will build “a commercial hub” (OK, a mall) at the current site of the stadium in the middle of an already huge commercial district. All profits from the “mall” will be directed toward both the Blue Bombers and an amateur football component that Asper envisions as one day making Manitoba, “the Texas of the North.”
The cost will be somewhere around $135 million, of which Asper is asking the province and feds to kick in $35 million — $20 million from Manitoba and another $15 million from Ottawa.
It’s a sensible arrangement that assists the U of M, grassroots amateur sport, Olympic-level sport, the local football side and even, in a sense, the Canadian Football League – a popular national sports loop playing most of its games in aging, run-down stadiums.
However, on the day Mike Kelly, the 27th head coach in Blue Bombers’ history was re-introduced to the local media, Asper still wondered what was going to happen to his stadium dream. After all, for nearly two years, Asper has been negotiating the funding of the project with Toews. Now, with parliament on hiatus and, perhaps, a new Liberal/NDP/Bloc Troika about to take control of the country, Asper’s dream might be in for a financial wakeup call.
“It’s frustrating because we’ve come so far,” Asper said. “Mr. Toews publicly supported our project as did most other Manitoba Conservatives. We’re ready, but what’s going on in Ottawa could delay the project, I just don’t have a clue. You have to admit, the world has changed dramatically since we came up with the first proposal (way back in January of 2007).”
By the time Asper’s brilliant idea celebrates its second birthday next month, the man behind a new stadium in Winnipeg could be negotiating with a whole new crew. And that whole new crew will have very little representation from Western Canada. As a result, it might not feel obligated to talk about stadium funding with a group from PC-heavy Manitoba.
“I don’t really know what will happen either, but I suspect that at best, it will cause a delay,” said Ken Hildahl, the current president of the Winnipeg Football Club. “David has been negotiating with Vic (Toews) for nearly two years and my sense is that the negotiations have gone well. We certainly have a provincial commitment so maybe with an NDP provincial government, the new coalition in Ottawa won’t make any difference, but, really, who knows?”
The Bombers current stadium will be 55-years-old this summer and it not only looks old, it feels older. And yet, thanks to the upheaval in Ottawa, the old dump could still celebrate a few more birthdays.
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