Raise the Hammer

I'm sure the Pan Am powerbrokers in Toronto will gladly swap us soccer for shotput...

Go to www.goeastmountain.com

Look under "Letters of Support"

You'll notice the Lung Association, and United Way listed, along with Carmens and others.

Read the Lung Association and United Way letters, and you'll see that they're neutral thank you letters to the ti-cats, not letters in support of the east mountain.

I've already called the lung association, and will now call the united way so they can have the ti-cats remove these letters of support from the goeastmountain website.

I think it's inappropriate for charities to be taking a stand, and they haven't. The ticats are simply misleading by indicating that these groups are "supporting the east mountain site."

Accepting Athletic Canadas proposal will mark the point at which Hamiltons stadium starts to come off the rails. PanAm funding will be cut for a soccer facility as a 15000 seat venue is not needed because it exists at BMO Field in Toronto. The Mayor and Council need to re-affirm the West Harbour Track and Field stadium with direct GO train access before it's to late.

i dont understand how the ticats can speak directly to the panam group. don't the games belong to the city?

Agreed Ward. Although the Ticats are pretending that the Athletics Canada announcement is the death knell for track, it's nothing of the sort; just another desperate maneuver in their shell game. The bid book remains as it is... a stadium accessible by rail transit from the Athletes Village in the Toronto port lands.

Athletics Canada can recommend all they want; they are not in charge, only the Committee. And Athletics Canada are only getting cold feet BECAUSE of the West Harbour / East Mountain controversy. Before the Ticats started pulling shenanigans, they were committed to holding the events in Hamilton.

The city can hold the line on a stadium at the West Harbour and once the Ticats come onside (as they always said they would until two days ago) we will preserve a full share in the Pan Ams for Hamilton.

Comment edited by HamiltonFan on 2010-07-29 13:28:53

HamiltonFan, it is ONLY the Ticats that have derailed the consensus at the last minute (the VERY last minute, having spent two years agreeing to West Harbour they proposed a change a mere couple of weeks ago) and tried to impose their own solution on everyone else in the city.

I'm unsure of why the Cats expect to receive ANY funding for their stadium. TO won't give up soccer (why would they if they already have a stadium) and that makes the new TC stadium entirely pointless.

So Scott Mitchell, why don't you just pack up your toys and go home? We don't want ANY public money going to a stadium that's built on a greenfield and creates a necessity for personal vehicle trips ESPECIALLY since the city won't profit from it. What you're doing is backwards thinking at it's best and plain extortion at it's worst.

As a downtown (North End) Hamilton resident I find the Ti-Cat press conference insulting. Are they seriously proposing a West Harbour based 3,000 person ampitheatre that can host ORCHESTRA music and attract "church-goers"??? So no worries, you folks who believe in brownfield revitalization who see this is a historic chance to showcase Hamilton's gorgeous West Harbour.... you might be losing the agreed-to athletics stadium that was to host an international sporting event.... you can now have Sunday orchestra concerts. Thanks Ti-Cats for deciding for us the proper recreational use of the West Harbour lands. PLUS they've proposed to donate $1.5 MILLION DOLLARS (gasp) and $100,000 annually in upkeep money. And all they ask is to use our city's Future Fund $60 million (half of the entire fund) to build themselves an East Mountain stadium.

I'am a fan of Hamilton and the Ti-Cats. Both City Council and the Ti-Cat leadership are responsible for this fiasco. My point was more about saving this development from failure. The funding is about to be 'Hijacked' from Hamilton to Toronto, and the only way to stop this from happening is to re-affirm our commitment to the proposal that won the rights to the games.

I totally agree with your comment Andrea. City Council need to clearly reaffirm their original decision to support the West Harbour site and simply ignore the Ti-Cats from this point on. I think this city would be better managed by the Future Fund Board of Governors who have demonstrated they can be decisive...they made their position known in no uncertain terms. We need more of that kind of leadership in Hamilton...we should have rejected any discussion to hire a mediator...we had made our decision.