Saturday morning, David Asper woke up to the best news he’s had since the Winnipeg Football Club accepted his proposal to build a new football stadium in Winnipeg way back in January of 2007.
The Winnipeg Free Press reported that Premier Greg Selinger would make an announcement “in days,” guaranteeing that he would “step in to ensure a new home for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be built at the University of Manitoba.”
As the story unfolded it became apparent that no one in Manitoba, including Asper, knew much of this incredible development but it was clear he was going to be the beneficiary of what appeared to be $85 million in provincial government money — $85 million that had not been written into the provincial budget.
But yesterday, Asper didn’t sound too happy.
“I’m not talking about it,” Asper snapped, when asked about the new deal. “Scott, I’m not going to talk about it.”
According to the Free Press, “Sources confirmed late Friday Selinger, Creswin (Properties), the City of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Ottawa are close to hammering out a new deal to build a scaled-down stadium, likely beginning this summer.”
That was news to Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz.
“I don’t know anything about it, nobody’s talked to me” Katz said on Saturday morning. “Right now I have people running around trying to find out what was promised the last few years. I do know that we can’t put any more money into the stadium we have now. The Tower Report, five or six years ago, said we needed about $10 million to improve the current stadium. That’s more than doubled. I won’t spend taxpayers money on that stadium.”
It’s funny, but only a couple of people who would be involved in the deal spoke to the Free Press, and not one of them said they knew anything of Selinger’s plans. However, I certainly believe the story is true. Everybody in town knows that if the provincial NDP government asks the Free Press to write a story, they’ll write it. The FP didn’t earn the nickname, “Official Newspaper of the Provincial NDP Government,” for nothing. This story definitely has legs.
Sadly, in its effort to get a stadium built, we hear that the government wants to scale back the new venue from a $135 million project to a $100 million project. One wonders what we’ll get for $100 million. The University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium is very nice, but not spectacular and it cost $288 million US. The total capital cost of the MTS Centre was $133.8 million and it’s a scaled down 15,001-seat AHL hockey rink. One wonders how many seats $100 million will buy?
Still, if this story is true, and I certainly believe it is, Selinger is going to give Asper an $85 million gift while the feds give him $15 million. When Asper gets his new mall operating, he’ll get an option to purchase the team. Wow! that IS a new deal. It’s not even close to the agreement the Bombers have with Asper. Not even close.
No wonder Asper wasn’t very happy this morning.
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