Comment 82387

By hshields (registered) - website | Posted October 29, 2012 at 10:00:09

Enough about IW.

Look, it is an albatross anyway you cut it. For 10 events/year I can't see any public money justifying this kind of expenditure. Now, if IW were to be used for say, 50 events/year, you are now talking about something public money can get behind.

Does the CFL season last 100 games with 50 home games? Nope. How about adding a second-tier MLS team to the schedule? So, that's another 17-20 events/year.

How about adding special events like concerts, Pan-Am, CANUSA, third-tier community soccer? Let's say all the drips and drabs adds up to only an additional 10 events/year.

Now we are talking 40 events/year. The new IW is still going to be on razor-thin margins and it simply doesn't make sense for public money to be going into it. Good luck Mr. Young, you'll need it.

Now, with this new train service coming into Hamilton, with LRT eventually hooking up with it, combined with a resurgent James N., this may be an opportunity to start thinking about a venue that does do more than 50 events/year.

And that's a closed arena.

Is today the day to start talking about letting go of Copps? Nope, but the writing is on the wall a new owner of Copps should look very closley at this transportation hub and say to themselves, hey, Hamilton has all this publicly-owned property sitting around a transportation hub I don't have to pay for - let's make a deal.

That deal is coming. Just a matter of when and who.

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