Raise the Hammer

Today the proposed WH site is a mile and a half from the nearest highway access. -Bob Young

I love how this line gets repeated again and again. I'm originally from Vancouver and BC Place Stadium (capacity ~50,000) and GM Place (~19,000) are right downtown and almost 7 km from the nearest highway exit. While there is some traffic congestion right after games, it typically clears in 15-20 minutes because the stadiums are right downtown so people disperse in all directions on a number of arterial routes (none of which has a speed limit over 60km/hr). Parking at both stadiums is limited and so most people park on the street or in parkades 500m to 2km away. Public transport also takes care of a large percentage of the crowd.

The throughput of Main / King / York / Barton in Hamilton far exceeds that of the arterial routes adjacent to the stadiums in Vancouver.

There are even days when both stadiums let out within half an hour of each other and still, there's no significant problem. As a longtime season ticket holder living in a suburb, I commuted by car or transit to hundreds of Canucks, Lions and Grizzlies games, as well as numerous concerts, events etc. Even during playoffs the maximum delay due to congestion has been about 20 minutes. My experience mirrors the experience of many other sports enthusiasts in many other cities across North America. Even with the North American car culture, downtown stadiums work, and they work especially well when serviced by rapid transit lines that allow people to park and commute quickly to the stadium site.

The West Harbour site is suitable for both the current reality of the desired "driveway to driveway" experience and the future reality of a transit, biking and walking dominated culture. The East Mountain site suits the current reality, but at a huge cost to the city to upgrade nearby roads to handle the massive influx of cars and at a huge cost to the environment.