Raise the Hammer

With all the money Bob has to throw at his Go East Mountain marketing campaign, you'd think he could build it on his own. Has anyone else caught the TV spots on CHCH? I caught the last bit of one this morning at the gym.

Through all of this I have started to wonder, the City and the Tiger-Cats talk about losing money at IWS. Are they losing money on purpose? Is it much more comparatively than other CFL teams? One poster already noted how Saskatchewan is one of (if not the only one), that has turned a profit because they are owned by the fans.

Are they losing money because they are building large screens and large marketing campaigns like this Go East Mountain one? All this is nice and the entertainment value is right up there at IW, but to what expense if they are losing that much money?

Should we have a committee like CATCH, for city owned buildings and teams that play out of them like the Cats? One that makes numbers and reports public and acts like a liason between the fans and big money so we know the truth in detailed so we can form an informed response to issues such as this one.

I was talking with the Cast yesterday and they keep throwing numbers like $93 million to fix IWS, yet this report linked above states $20M up to 2014, and the City supposedly has a 20 year plan which makes me believe that was to get us to the 2030 Commonwealth Games? Yes, there is still probably a yearly upkeep costs which I believe is around $1.3M a year, but what does it cost yearly for upkeep on a new stadium? Eventually those numbers will increase with age as well right? Now does it all add up/compare?

It would be nice if we all had easy access to proof behind these numbers and reasoning. My questions regarding 'why they can't hold concerts at IW' were not good enough for my liking either. They talk about egress from the field and sprinkler systems which seem like easy/relatively inexpensive updgrades in the grand scheme of things, and of course they through the 'residential' neighborhood in there. EM isn't too far from it's proposed community and neither is WH.

Do we really know the entire truth about all of this? My data is just based on what I have been able to find. Where do these numbers that I cannot find come from?

"IWS is going to crumble into the earth in 6 years, otherwise the engineers won't sign off on it any longer after that". Really? The report linked in my post above doesn't lead me to believe this?

Sure, maybe it's time to say goodbye to IW as I have stated, but if EM is our only choice (and from what Mr. Young and the CFL commish have stated it is the only choice), my second choice is 'None of the Above' - after West Harbour.

I am not trying to plug my site on RTH. I believe wholeheartedly in what these/you folks are trying to accomplish. I will vote West Harbour the day before the council vote, but I truly think we can have two votes here. This isn't an election so there really are no rules. "I chose West Harbour, or None of the Above" is a statement that I think needs to be made.

This isn't about my love for Ivor Wynne Stadium anymore although yes I love the 'old girl' dearly. This is about what is right for my/your city. West Harbour is the right choice in my eyes and as HostCo has stated, it is our choice and one we will have to live with for a very long time. Not Bob Young's or Mark Cohon's. I have some questions about the Harour as well, but we only have two choices so I think it's a nobrainer.

Just found this on Cohon by the way.