Proposed Calgary arena will transform public money into private profit

by Dougal MacDonald

Edmonton’s Rogers Place hockey arena, home of the Edmonton Oilers, opened for business in September 2016. In a way its beginnings can be traced to former Oiler owner Peter Pocklington who used what is now a well-worn ploy: “If you don’t give me money for a new arena I’ll move the team.” Creating the new Rogers Place arena involved the interests of the Oilers, Northlands, city officials, the Katz Group owners, and various others.

The world’s oldest baseball park is in Canada

Memorial Park in London, Ontario | Dave Chidley/CBC

London, Ont.’s Labatt Memorial Park has been around since 1877, and the Guiness Book of World Records recognizes the charming 5,200-seat stadium as the world’s longest continuously operating baseball grounds.

The streak looked like it might end at 143 years with the pandemic causing the cancellation of baseball seasons throughout Ontario, but a special exhibition game of Memorial Park’s main team, the London Majors, was organized to keep it intact.

The Majors Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) season remains cancelled due to the pandemic, but the Majors will take the field on Friday night to play the Guelph Royals in a matchup of IBL foes. Fans won’t be allowed in, but the game will be shown on local cable TV and on the Majors’ YouTube channel.

First pitch is at 7:35 p.m.

Read more about the effort to preserve the streak here.

The Halifax stadium lie

Tim Bousquet

Some $2.4 million in public money went to design this 25,000-seat stadium at Shannon Park, and a half a million dollars more to study building a 10-14,000 seat stadium at Shannon Park, and then another million dollars to study building a 20,000-seat stadium at Shannon Park. Now the city is being asked to look at another stadium proposal for Shannon Park.

The Calgary stadium swindle (II)

Exactly how bad is the new Calgary Flames arena deal? Neil deMause writes in the Field of Schemes website:

(July 26) – With all of four days of public comment period (expiring today at noon, July 26) allowed before the Calgary city council votes next week on its Flames arena plan, the media have been commenting like crazy on how it’s either terrific or godawful. Among the takes:

From Tokyo 1964 to Tokyo 2020: Japan tightens it belt

The Japanese have taken note that only rational spending will lead to a success similar to that of Tokyo 1964, when the Asian continent hosted an Olympic contest for the first time, then described by critics as the “Perfect Games”

Image of the new Olympic Stadium as it will appear on conclusion | http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl

By Alfonso Nacianceno

THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not removed from the fluctuations in the global economy, experiencing its recessions and slowdowns, elements that affect the host cities of its quadrennial Games.

The latest Calgary stadium swindle

After a closed meeting behind the backs of the people on July 22, the Calgary city council announced an outrageous pay-the-rich deal with the owners of the Calgary Flames of the NHL for a new 19,000-seat arena. It will be built on current Calgary Stampede parking lots to replace the Saddledome. Details include:

Montreal’s new tourism minister wants to spend $250m on a new Olympic Stadium roof, just like old tourism minister

By Neil deMause

What do you get for a stadium that’s already had one retractable roof replaced by a non-retractable roof when the original retractable roof failed to retract? How about a new (possibly retractable) roof!

“It’s time we gave prestige and standing back to the Olympic Park and the Olympic Stadium,” [Québec Tourism Minister Caroline] Proulx told reporters at a news conference. “For too long it has been not loved or under-loved by Quebecers.”…

“We will be working on replacing the roof, it is mandatory to change the roof,” Proulx said. “We will change the roof. The business plan will be tabled in the next few months.”

This is not the first we’ve heard of Montreal’s Olympic Stadium getting a new roof — a year and a half ago, the previous tourism minister floated spending about $250 million on one, which at the time I called “just madness.” There are certainly times when stadiums need repairs — for Olympic Stadium, this has historically been “pretty much always” — but spending $250 million on a new roof, retractable or otherwise, is a hella expensive way to provide “standing and prestige,” especially when past roofs have only resulted in scandal and ridicule. MORE

Moncton’s bid to host the Francophone Games is a disaster

By TIM BOUSQUET*

Large sporting events — the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, what have you — as a rule are economic disasters and black hole budget items for governments. That’s because backers always oversell their ability to control costs and overestimate the economic impact of such games.

Obscene and incredibly expensive US college football stadiums

Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan

(CNN) – See if you can wrap your mind around this eye-popping price tag for a renovated college football stadium in Texas: half a billion dollars.

MLS and its money-grubbing Canadian franchises

You really have to wonder about MLS and its leadership more and more every day, don’t you?

Having two weeks off between the conference semifinals and finals for an international break is just bad planning but at some level it was something they had no say in.

But the money-grubbing decision to shift Game 1 of the Toronto-Montreal series from Stade Saputo to the Big Owe in Montreal not only shows a callous disregard for the players and fans, it’s just a blatant attempt to stuff the pockets of the owners and league.