Raise the Hammer
The man who self-admittedly made one of the most foolish business decisions one could make feels entitled to jeopardize a City's dreams of renewal to enrich his franchise at taxpayer expense.
By Keanin Loomis
Published July 30, 2010
My, how a year changes things. I've written previously in this column about my family's settlement here last summer and how, upon unexpectedly falling in love with Hamilton and its people, I came to regard it as a city with all the assets necessary to experience a dramatic revitalization and position itself as a unique Canadian community.
A year ago, Hamilton was poised to enhance its existing assets, notably with light rail transit and the promise of a 2015 Pan Am party around a new stadium at the West Harbour.
Like so many young professionals and entrepreneurs, my values matched that of municipal and Provincial leaders who spoke of City Building. Seemingly on the precipice of progressive transformation, I decided to plant my flag here in Hamilton and participate in the wave of renewal in some way or another.
My efforts have succeeded as I've recently settled into a new job with an innovative organization located within walking distance of my West End neighborhood. In Hamilton, I've found that (with more than a little work) I've been able to find the quality of life that was so elusive in frenetic, cynical and expensive Washington, DC.
Hamilton became my family's safe harbor after getting spit out by the tumult of America's Great Recession, and things are thankfully looking up.
Then came Hurricane Bob, who by all accounts is exactly the kind of citizen you want in your city ... until he's handed a disproportionate amount of leverage on a silver platter.
I understand a man's prerogative to ensure that he gets the best deal for his business; but though it might have been business-savvy for Hurricane Bob to exercise his leverage just as the clock was to strike midnight, it certainly was not good citizenship, regardless of whatever he's previously done for this City or in "saving" the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
All along, seemingly indifferent to the stadium location determination, Hurricane Bob has single-handedly jeopardized promises of progressive urban revitalization and produced an ever-growing cacophony of contention that divides us as a community and threatens to burnish, rather than transform, Hamilton's image as a laughingstock.
Even if a stadium on the East Mountain ultimately works for the Ticats, Hamiltonians of every stripe are saying that it doesn't work for them.
Hurricane Bob is being disingenuous when he states that Ticats fans are clamoring for a driveway-to-driveway experience. The one nettlesome fact that he has never addressed, let alone been able to counter, is that the success of the Ticats at poor old Ivor Wynne proves that as long as he puts a good product on the field, people will flock to support his team.
In fact, convenient or not, Ticat fans pride themselves on the uniqueness of Ivor Wynne's neighborhood location. This is part of the soul and character of the Ticats and Hamilton and will be lost in the Olive Garden of stadiums.
Instead, the person to whom the driveway-to-driveway experience makes most sense is the very one who would control all access to the destination driveway. One of the reasons the Ticats have not been transparent in their analysis is that it is unpalatable in this day and age to defend the paving of paradise to put up a parking lot - especially one at the top of an already flood-prone valley.
Another is that if the taxpayers are really able to study the cash flow, they will realize just how much of a sweetheart deal Hurricane Bob is getting at their expense.
I settled here because of the promise of exciting changes on the horizon. However, if I were to have arrived here this August instead of last, the chaotic and embarrassing nature of this unfolding drama and the sense of impending doom would have motivated me to move on.
The Ticats' newest proposal to bequeath a West Harbor "Pan Am Park" to the citizens using primarily the citizens' own money does not change my perception. In fact, the arrogance of it frustrates me further. ("Our objective is to provide the City of Hamilton a legacy after the Pan Am Games of 2015 in the West Harbor." "The City will earmark $7.0MM of the Future Fund towards the park." How magnanimous!)
While certainly an improvement on what currently exists at West Harbor, it simply makes this whole saga more sublime. It clearly leaves the impression that the Ticats' brass, like a band of Somali pirates, are steering a ship that passive Pan Am officials (or is it co-conspirators?) and impotent City Hall denizens should be in control of.
The uncertainty created by Hurricane Bob's gale-force winds has already forced high-profile track and field events to be moved to Toronto. Now we get a few - though not the most important! - soccer games, but certainly nothing that justifies building a 15,000 seat venue (do we bill the Ticats for that lost revenue?).
If West Harbor stadium falls through, no one will be at all surprised if Metrolinx, which has been eerily silent while watching intently as this drama unfolds, pulls the plug on our LRT plans.
With the Ticats' flat-out refusal to play at the West Harbor, Council should ignore their and the CFL's economic blackmail altogether and build a nice little velodrome with a nice little stadium for soccer next door.
Hell, throw in the amphitheater and other amenities in the Ticats' Carrot to the Concerned People of Hamilton, because those would be nice too. We'll have a manageable post-games legacy to exploit and we won't have to further pillage the Future Fund to construct some rich man's plaything.
Let Hurricane Bob stay at Ivor Wynne or build his mountain monstrosity on his own or wreak havoc in some other locale - he doesn't deserve any of our money anymore.
Despite attempts at deflection and obfuscation, this farce lays at the feet of one man who bought the Ticats because owning a professional sports team is every man's dream and he was fortunate enough to have the resources to do so.
Hurricane Bob made the worst business decision of his life. Sadly, with a gun at its head, a compliant (or just plain gutless?) Council will likely agree to increase the value of his franchise and minimize his losses at taxpayer expense.
Meanwhile, long-time consensus to leverage an influx of taxpayer money into rebuilding a city vanishes, leaving a divided and sputtering community as Hurricane Bob's greatest legacy.
I know change is hard, no matter how sensible, but it might be proving too hard for Hamilton's existing decision-makers. I wish I knew that each councillor's actions would have consequences - but if they did, Council never would have let one man hijack this process in the first place.
By Disgusted (anonymous) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 18:46:13
Dear city council. Please remove the Ticats banners in Westdale Village. They are an eyesore advertising a private business that is not a community builder.
Nobody wants to go downtown, especially to an out of the way stadium.
Well, Keanin already addressed this but I'll be the twelthty-fifth person to bring this up on RTH: people do go downtown already to get to Ivor Wynne, which is as "out of the way" as the West Harbour site.
Comment edited by moylek on 2010-07-30 18:04:02
By d.knox (registered) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 19:06:44
Upvote for the article.
Build what you want, Bob the Builder, but just do it with your own money! And don't pretend this is anything but a shakedown. You can go away now.
By brian (registered) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 19:14:13
"Nobody wants to go downtown"....really you mean like those 12000,13000 people who put deposits on season tickets for a NHL team not many years ago?.So a few blocks further over it wont work?. I've been to events at Copps with 18,000 people, it doesn't take long to get out of downtown, it's a myth. How is it that at Ivor Wynne during labor day game sell outs when you have around 30,000 people in a area with far less parking spaces than downtown..there doesn't seem to be any major problems getting out of there (and i've gone to games longer than 35 years). If the Ticats were putting up 90% of the money instead of 10%..i think i would side with them..but they aren't. When you have a big name artist coming to Copps like elton john last month...guess what it sells out...even when it's that downtown nobody wants to go to.
By realitycheck (anonymous) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 19:20:57
Actually, Athletics Canada lobbied to move the track events because they felt they were too far removed from the atheletes' village and the stadium did not have the kind of legacy track element they felt was needed. These were concerns they have raised since the bid details were first proposed.
By z jones (registered) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 19:22:55
Actually, Athletics Canada said they were worried about the distance when the stadium was at the west harbour but pulled the plug after the stadium moved to the east mountain.
By TheLastStraw (anonymous) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 20:01:40
A fine article Keanin. Bob Young's blatant arrogance and blackmailing is even making some of the biggest tiger cat supporters a little uncomfortable. And you're right, I don't think most of our Councillor's are really qualified to be in their position at a time when this city needs stronger leadership and teamwork than ever. The fallout of this whole Pan Am thing is that there's a growing grassroots and passionate voice in community that will live on and get stronger (and who know, perhaps some will become a new wave of city leaders in time)...maybe that's where our real revitalization starts.
By jason (registered) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 22:41:52
yep, this mess is REALLY going to hurt LRT. Young was yapping about running LRT out to his stadium site. I'll lead a revolt to city hall if they ever dare throw around the idea of running LRT for one guy when our east/west corridor is jammed to the hilt on it's buses and needs not only the enhanced transit but the ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STIMULUS more than the EM.
Young has possibly set our city back many years, or decades. It'll be fun in 10 years when free tickets to Ticat games are the norm and nobody wants to bother with the long, slow drive out to the burbs for a stadium whose shine has worn off. We've seen it time and time again in cities across North America, but once again, instead of learn from others' mistakes we are darned determined to make them ourselves and be sure to keep that 40 year cushion between us and all of the other cities that we're "competing" with. As if.
We're competing with Lackawanna and Chilliwack and in 10 years they'll both be kicking our backside.
Comment edited by jason on 2010-07-30 21:42:09
By Byebye (anonymous) | Posted July 30, 2010 at 22:57:38
growing grassroots and passionate voice in community that will live on and get stronger
Well not me. I've had enough of spending tax payer money on useless red hill expressway and airport pipedream and mountain big box stores and soon a suburb stadium.
There are better places to raise a family. Cities that look out for their citizens and build recreational facilities and not out of the way stadiums for a billionaire. Take your cap Bob and go back to the US.
By UrbanRenaissance (registered) | Posted July 31, 2010 at 01:24:52
Great article Keanin. I was in the midst of drafting one of my own along similar lines.
Last month, the company I worked for became another casualty of this "Great Recession". So aside from discovering the ins and outs of Canadian bankruptcy laws, I've been job hunting. Thus far I've been limiting my job hunt to the immediate area since I love living downtown and don't want to go back to a 40-50 minute QEW commute twice a day. However, I've been asked more than once if I'd be willing to relocate; a month ago I would have said no chance but now I'm not so sure.
I have a very large fear that this whole mess will only further stall other downtown renewal projects. After all why should other developers care about down town when most of our City Council doesn't?
I love this city and I'll continue to do everything I can to make it a better place, but there's only so many times you can pull the football out from under me before I get fed up.
By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted July 31, 2010 at 12:59:49
Here's an idea. Let's place a time limit on this whole thing. Most people here are clearly more in support of a WH site, but there's also a lot of scepticism about whether we need a stadium at all.
Bob Young really isn't helping this. The last thing this city needs is another influential plutocrat in some public-private grey area, whether it be private sports franchises masquerading as public utilties, or HECFI-style bureaucrats. This city is already full-to-the-brim with pompous windbags spouting grandiose visions which require tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
There's at least a dozen people who post here on a regular basis who take any of these clowns to the cleaners in a public debate. Five minutes from now an open, public game of ball hockey is going to start on the roof of Jackson Square. It's been running, regularly, for years, off volunteers and second-hand equipment. This is the kind of vision we need for Hamilton, and these are the kind of people we need putting it forward.
By run a business (anonymous) | Posted August 01, 2010 at 19:53:19
Yeah you are right Fedel5. The way to run a business is to take $100M+ of taxpayers money, build a stadium and then claim ownership of the stadium. Thats a great business model to make a profit eh. Oh that was sarcasm. Almost like taking free software and putting into a box with a red cap on it and selling it....
If these guys want to take their own money and build a stadium go right ahead but please don't take our taxpayers money to provide no return to the city. Otherwise we may need to raise property taxes.
By Jayded (anonymous) | Posted August 01, 2010 at 20:45:06
Where do we go from here?
When we arrived here several years ago from another City, we chose to live here because it was well located and an easy commute to many SW Ontario cities and a reasonable, but more painful, commute to the GTA.
AS time went by we got involved in the community and came to luv the hammer. I was amazed to see the many positive developments (LRT, PAN-AM TRACK and FIELD EVENTS, A NEW STADIUM, THE STEEL MILLS ALMOST CLOSED DOWN PERMANANTLY ETC...). This Hurricane Bod single handedly pushed Track and Field to Toronto and is putting a stadium in a location that we end up with Bus Rapid Transit (we may as well stay with our current system).
Just when I thought Hamilton was getting it together, this happens. I thinks its time to leave this disfunctional town for a place of greater opportunity, before I lose my youth and have many regrets.
Good luck, Hammer. You're going to need it!!
By Tybalt (registered) | Posted August 02, 2010 at 18:41:19
For those complaining about moderation, consider whether your comment is adding anything to the conversation before complaining. Thanks.
"run a business" has it spot on when he compares converting public money into a private business with Bob's previous business model, appropriating open, free software into a commodity he could sell.
I admire Bob Young's business sense. I don't like what he's doing to our city, though.
Comment edited by Tybalt on 2010-08-02 17:41:57
By Smack dab in the middle (anonymous) | Posted August 02, 2010 at 23:59:37
White Star Group has it dead on. Especially their latest updates on their web site. I like their remediation of brownfields attracting private investment for commercial/residential/arts/recreation mix-use development. Glen Hamilton said it correctly on his blog "If architect firms and developers could be summoned to make a beautiful stadium structure proposal and surroundings that enhances that limited, valuable, exclusive, shore line property, as per previous blog comments I made about shore line beautification and somehow meet the needs of Downtown and that historical sport institution, the Ticats, that would be heaven. I think its possible and I thought the White Star concept got close."
By Cityjoe (anonymous) | Posted August 03, 2010 at 04:20:56
CFL Commish. Cohon has gotten behind Bob, & says that if the Ti-Cats leave, Hamilton will Never get another CFL franchise...!!!! (according CBC news)
If a CFL owner can pull a team out of a city because he doesn't like-? something-anything, then we do not have a team now. Bob has a team. He just let's us pay to watch that team.
I'm astonished that a CFL Commissioner would wade into this, as he has. It's clearly Not His Business! If the Ti-Cats become unprofitable in the future, then he can have a say.
By brian (registered) | Posted August 04, 2010 at 11:21:33
..I just heard that the ticats are saying the stadium can't go to the harbor because it isn't zoned for a stadium. They are saying the city would have to go through a long process to change the zoning...um ok..if that was really true wouldn't the same be said for putting a velodrome down there...are the ticats for real or do they make up this crap.
By Chris Angel (registered) | Posted August 04, 2010 at 16:03:05
I have a feeling many here would not be satisfied unless Bob Young kept his mouth shut on his stadium preferences while keeping his wallet on the table. After all sniff sniff mere capitalists should not have any say or "control" as someone said. All power and control should rest with city council and Pan Am wonks. Bob Young has apparently torpedoed not only a new stadium but LRT now as well. Amazing how his list of sins grows. Before long he will have a shark tank installed below the floor of his secret lair. I knew that red hat symbolized something. It is the bloody head of Canadian liberalism! He is an evil genius come here to 'Mericanize us. I have to go now the whiff of class envy always makes me a little uncomfortable and what with the intellectual pretensions I need some air. But please don't let me stop you from pillorying another rich guy for failing to spend his money as you see fit.
By highwater (registered) | Posted August 04, 2010 at 16:07:18
But please don't let me stop you from pillorying another rich guy for failing to spend his money as you see fit.
You mean OUR money. And therein lies the problem. If he were spending his own money, he wouldn't be being pilloried.
By Chris Angel (registered) | Posted August 04, 2010 at 16:19:28
No no really I mean his money. He is or was prepared to partner with the other stakeholders provided the location was acceptable. It isn't so its back to Ivor Wynn for Bob Young and the Cats. If you don't believe he had a contribution to make why all the fuss? This is about a person spending their money as they see fit. Slip it in the frock of your choice but nobody would be bitching if it wasn't about his financial investment in the thing. You can talk all you want about what a great deal he is getting but he still has to give to get.
By tripleseq (registered) | Posted August 04, 2010 at 20:07:18
The business case for East Mountain is simple. Young wants to see profit within two years so he can flip the team. If Young was planning to own the team five - ten years from now he would be using his influence to make the WH plan the best it can be, because WH is clearly the best long term investment. Christ, the stadium would be at the transit hub for ALL of Southern Ontario and a 45 minute train ride from the stadium of its main rival. The City should formallyh commit to West Harbour and then buy the team. We need to get focused on city building rather than catering to this A$$HOLE's quick fix business plan that is clearly not designed to be in the interests of the community at all. If Young's so sure that WH is going to make the Cats unprofitable then he should be happy to cut bait AND we should get a great price for it.
I call bullshit on you Mr. Young.
By downtown mythology (anonymous) | Posted August 05, 2010 at 02:26:12
So by "Chris Angel's" thinking, if I invest then I can tell everyone else where the stadium should go? Well a lot of public money is going into this and as part of the "public" I don't want more greenspace hacked up in the suburbs for a stadium i will never go to when there is a perfectly good and more accessible spot at the West Harbour that will not only reuse space but help clean up a much maligned and neglected part of our city.
The problem is and I bet Mr. Young is included, there are many who have never set foot downtown let alone our north end due to a severe lack of actual knowledge of the area combined with many false and overblown stories regarding the nature of the area.
I took some coworkers to a pub downtown after having dinner at a local restaurant not so long ago and many reacted in fear as we walked from one location along 2 blocks to the other as they had never beeen downtown at night. nothing happened of course but they all grew up in "suburban Hamilton" and grew up on overblown stories of how depressed and dangerous downtown is. Needless to say both the dinner and drinks later were great and the only harm that occured were some hangovers the next morning and the retreival of a couple of cars the next day due for safe driving reasons!!
A night like this could easily follow a ticat game at West Harbour but not at the east Mountain site.
By Chris Angel (registered) | Posted August 05, 2010 at 09:14:07
I think it is sad the number of people who claim it is time to pack up and leave due to this issue. One man refuses to back what he thinks is not worth his investment and you want to exit? Good luck in finding a magic land where all is consensus and self interest does not exist. Please call so I can go there too. For the time being RTH will have to be that place. I know that most of those who are so core-centric would be so even if they didn't live there and have a vested interest in renewal. These people are intellectuals and artists and too pure of heart to be influenced by self interest unlike evil capitalists such as Bob ptuhh! Young. I'm sorry I know this is so immature but I really have to add WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHH!
By Cityjoe (anonymous) | Posted August 05, 2010 at 17:33:50
Bob Young or not, I still wanna know HOW the Future Fund Money became so easily converted from a 'loan' to a 'grant', & how do we (the taxpayers) get that money back?
There was a committee of overseers who could prevent the fund from being used for political gain, graft, etc. etc... But they got overruled by the people they were supposed to be 'overseeing'!
Good Plan, Hamilton!! (sarcasm.)Is there ever a fail safe that's actually Safe & not just Fail!?
By brian (registered) | Posted August 05, 2010 at 18:20:32
How about boss bob sell the ticats to someone that actually makes sense and give him an expansion franchise in ottawa so he can run another team into the ground.
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