Raise the Hammer

His claim that he would have preferred a downtown location is not to be believed, frankly. Chedoke is NEC land, and the Innovation Park is the most valuable employment land in the city. The city opposed big box development on the site, but Bob thinks they would have allowed a stadium that gets 10 days of use a year? Saying he would have preferred Chedoke or IP is like saying he would have preferred the moon. It never would have happened, but it gives him some urban cred to say so. There was only ever one site on his radar: Confederation Park.

I agree Confederation Park would also make a great location for a large-audience public facility such as a football stadium.

The reason Ivor Wynne gets as few event dates as it does is because of its age and location. A newer better sited stadium will attract a wide variety of events from sports to music to other cultural events resulting in a large number of days of use. This is a good thing if you are a city investing in a stadium. Not such a good thing if you live beside the stadium.

If you use google.com/maps satellite view you'll see a lot of underused property on the east side of the 403 between Main St and the Aberdeen exit, including the railyards there and Chedoke. It always seemed to me to be a much more credible place to build a stadium than trying to shoe-horn one into the residential neighbourhoods of the West Harbour.

As to the NEC restrictions, the fact is that Chedoke Golf course is currently public sports facility. The stadium would also be a public sports facility. Not to minimize the complexity of dealing with the Niagara Escarpement Commission, this should not be an impossible change in use application.

On the other hand this is all a moot point as, for a variety of reasons, the City have not offered this area as a possibility.