Quick-And-Dirty Notes From Today's Committee Meeting

Special Report: Pan Am

Quick-And-Dirty Notes From Today's Committee Meeting

Bullet points on the presentations, questions and comments at today's council meeting concerning a proposal to renovate Ivor Wynne Stadum for use as a Pan Am Games and Hamilton Tiger-Cats stadium.

By Mark Richardson
Published January 24, 2011

Delegation from Lawrence Pattison, Save Ivor Wynne

Passionate presentation on what playing football at Ivor Wynne meant to him.
Important that it was the home of a professional football team

Chris Murray, City Manager Presentation

Reviews report with councillors
Committed to spending 45 million in preparation reports, no direction from to account for more
IWS2 could be catylst for Gage St. GO station
Zoning issues: recommends getting a Ministerial Zoning order to allow for height over 11 meters. 11 meters is the current allowance under IWS zoning, current use is non-conforming
New stadium will encroach on school parking. City has not had conversation with school board about this yet
Mentions 'Code Red' series and how this fits in with rectifying those issues
Calls this a "Golden Opportunity"
Admits to losing Brian Timmis Stadium (BTS) and greenspace
Wants to tie in community consultation with Poverty Round Table
Option B is 15,000 seats + base requirements from CFL
Option C is option B + Ti-Cat needs
Constant dialogue with Cats the whole time

Rob Rossini, City Finance Manager Presentation

Option D is option C + Ticat office space
18 million for Cat office at IWS2
7 Million cost to city to cover costs of Ti-Cats playing elsewhere while under construction
2012 and 2013 seasons will not be played at IWS
2.4 million to replace BTS not including land acquisition
With BTS option D is now 229 million
15,000 seat bare bones stadium (no CFL requirements) at IWS was 115 million in 2008 but now 127 million
Option E (WH 5000 seats) only 12 of 20 needed acres owned
HostCo will not cover remediation costs, demolition or land acquisition costs for E
Already spent 10 million on WH
45 million for WH stadium
Recommends additional 10 million Future Fund money to purchase rest of WH lands needed then re-selling the land to developers and refund the Future Fund
Velodrome: No report until mid-late February. Expect funding shortfall, cost is going to be much higher than expected. (later heard that $15 million allocated but will need another $10 million)
$900,000 a year from Cats if offices in place, $600,000 a year if no offices (we later learn that these 'guaranteed' numbers are in no way guaranteed)
Cats propose 25,000 seats with boxes and club seating
Expansion for 10,000 more temporary seats for Grey Cups
Cats' guarantee $600,000 payment to city from ticket sales. $450,000 from CFL and $150,000 from NASL (soccer)
Numbers on ticket surcharges keep changing. $3 then $1.50 for soccer and CFL then $2.00 if there are no offices built at IWS
If no Soccer no Soccer money, $450,000 only
Cats want the payment to city to go to constructing parking, city want it to go to stadium operating budget
30 corporate suites will be built for a cost of approximately 5 million. Cats will pay city $4000 for each suite rented for about $96,000/year
Club seats 50% of sales shared with city for a max of $62,000
Naming rights: City gets 90% of first $500,000 then 50% of anything over $500,000
City get $100,000 in free advertising space from Cats
Soccer coming in 2014
Not enough seats for the two Grey Cups (35,000 with temp seating), Cats will require a $2,000,000 payment from the city for each of the 2 Grey Cups ($4,000,000 total 2011 dollars)
1.2 million to run IWS, not all costs due to Cats
Cats at IWS costs city $650,000
$50,000 revenue from community use
18 pro soccer dates will cost city $308,000
Recommending $261,000/year in Capital Reserve. Not sustainable in the long term, will only cover turf maintenance and HVAC equipment
1500 parking spaces not accounted for yet
Ti-Cats claim sustainability with the new stadium (more on that later)
20 year lease
Lease in-line or better than other CFL teams (admits only checked Montreal and Saskatchewan)
Sask $200,000/year MTL $500,000/year
Ti-Cats asked by city to provide letter of credit for 3 years of revenue in case of failure, cats want to provide for 2 years
Gap $37.6 million - $55.6 million
Capital cost may change again, city has no control of project, have to go through Infrastructure Ontario (IO)
Naming rights revenue amount not guaranteed
Suite and Club seating revenue not guaranteed
Insufficient Funding

Councillor Terry Whitehead

Capital reserve should be 2% of project cost
1.8 million operating costs (rough)
What does Bob Young mean by 'Best Efforts' in obtaining a Soccer team

Councillor Brad Clark

Guaranteed funding of $600,000 not really guaranteed at all if you read the lease
Ti-Cats now willing to remove office space from plans
B is the option now in play
HostCo will not provide funding for CFL or team requirements
Letter of credit not finalized yet

Councillor Chad Collins

Concerned guaranteed revenues have no guaranteed minimum payment to city
Asks about funding gap. Chris Murray claims he has been talking to Premier's office and feels that funding gap will may be covered

Councillor LLoyd Ferguson

Did not expect gap
Current plan over $9200 a seat, 20% increase
EM was $7300 a seat
Costs rising, 6.5% increase (inflation) from 2008 to 2012
25 million increase from last numbers
Focused on the amount of padding in the estimate from IO and flet they were bad numbers
Johnson
Future Fund money was for WH, does IWS meet the same criteria (no real answer given by Murray)(Murray only says neighbourhood has supported the Cats for years)
Operating costs include transit and cops
3 schools will help support parking, not asked this yet though. Not part of the 1500 parking spaces
All concessions for any event belong to Cats
Will option E (WH 5000 seats) put us in bidding war with other cities? Yes.

Councillor Judi Partridge

B would include suites and club seats
No conformation on seat requirements from CFL on Grey Cup seating numbers, 35,000 may not be enough
2 million City payment for Grey Cups is only an estimate
What does the 7 million in team transfer costs cover? Possible temp seats at Mac. Find out its all guesses and assumptions, no discussions yet with Mac. Will team play out of Provence? No answer
Minister's Zoning order WILL NOT by-pass OMB review if challenged. No budget for this. OMB can cost $10,000/day and could easily total $1,000,000
'Soft' costs a concern
Need to consult with neighbours first

Councillor Scott Duvall

$3 surcharge based on Cats at IWS, $2 if at Jarvis
Will Cats guarantee $600,000 if there is no soccer? No, that number will change
Does BY own a local soccer team yet? No.
No soccer until stadium built and no guarantee of ever having soccer
3.5 acres needed for BTS replacement
Why is city negotiating with school boards for parking access for game day. BY should be doing this.
Cats not putting any money in for anything, even the corporate boxes. Why are we spending 5 million for $96,000 a year in revenue?

Councillor Sam Merulla

Can't afford this
Would not have proposed this if he knew it would cost this much
No more funding past 45 million
who is going to pay the difference?

Councillor Brian McHattie

HostCo contingency budget is +/- 7.5%
24 million is the max HostCo funding for WH
When flat out asked Chris Murray said, "No cheque is being written by the Ti-Cats for the construction of this facility."
Seniors center for Ward 3 would cost 10 million

Councillor Tom Jackson

(I decided this was the best time to take a Pee Break, didn't catch anything)

Councillor Bernie Morelli

What is the actual paid attendance of a football game. No answer other than Ti-Cats know and Rob (financial) has seen it
Where are the sponsors we all heard about? Primus, Hortons, Molson? Only made a small deal with the cats for advertising, not providing money for operations or construction
Soccer academy? No specifics at all
Limit funding at 45 million
How can I support an 18 million dollar office when my Ward does not have a seniors centre

Councillor Jason Farr

Will Cats stay at old IWS if nothing happens? No real answer given.

Councillor Maria Pearson

Any parking north of Barton?
Gage GO station, any cost to city?
Remember the letter from BY promising $50 million?

Councillor Whitehead, 2nd time

Suites should be paid for by Cats
Stability: Have the Cats opened their books to prove operational stability for 20 years. Murray confirms that KPMG has provided a report confirming Cats have spent $30 million since buying the team. Murray has seen the business plan with IWS2 and states the Cats will be in the Black with the new stadium. Both reports are confidential and will not be passed around
Chris Murray states that other levels of government will step up with funding once they know what Hamilton's portion will be

Councillor Clark, 2nd time

Hamilton will own the stadium, how can anyone possibly believe we can cap our contribution if there are gaps or cost over-runs? Not plausible
Mad about lack of Cat money
we should cover the lack of 22 soccer fields instead

Mayor Bob Bratina

2 main objective met: keep Cats and don't raise taxes
BY does not deserve the criticism he has been getting

Councillor Pearson, 2nd time

scared that Bob Young admits to losing $3,000,000 a year, no guarantee this will change

Vote

Motion carries 10-6

IWS location
Cap city spending at 45 million

Mark Richardson has lived in Hamilton since 1993. He is a Stationary Engineer and is one of Hamilton's many Industrial Nomads. He currently is employed at US Steel.

15 Comments

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By sbwoodside (registered) - website | Posted January 24, 2011 at 21:57:44

I'm pretty confused as to what this even means. What if HostCo decides that the stadium can't be reconstructed if Hamilton only puts in $45 million?

Raise the Hammer

Special Report: Pan Am