Comment 53646

By lawrence (registered) - website | Posted December 23, 2010 at 10:05:22

Good read and not so bad from an iPhone, Simon. :) I am just going by what I have read in reports that say there is no reason Ivor Wynne cannot last another 45 years if they followed the 10 year plan to upgrade/repair what was in that report. And when I asked the Cats what some of the major issues, including why concerts couldn't be held at Ivor Wynne, I got that things like egress from the field (doesn't seem like a hard thing to fix but what do I know), water pressure and a need to increase the hydro feed into the building as well. Simple things like cooking a hotdog they said, can be a dificult task.

Ivor Wynne has been badly taken care of it seems, yet at the time of the report, it was only going to cost $20M to keep it safe and workable for another 45 years. 9 million I believe it is, has been spent on the stadium (outside yearly maintenance), since the 70's. That is peanuts. Probably why Copps is seemingly outdated and becoming a White Elephant. Poor management and no real forward thinking business plan for the facilities. As one poster (and some councillors) stated, it probably is time to get out of the management of sports and entertainment facilities. If Ivor Wynne was to get a green light approval from both sides, my stand would be to have a group of both football loving and community building minded citizens to properly manage it and make sure that it can be a profitable venture.

Our councillors have a million things to oversee. I know we do have building managers, but with a body of folks dedicated to certain entities, I would think would give these buildings more of a shot at survival with broader community output. Output from people who have both lived here their entire lives and understand the demographics of our 'Pardon My Lunchbucket' city, to those perhaps new residents and those that have seen how these business work in other cities around the globe.

I do get where you and many others are coming form Simon. I truly and wholeheartedly do. Ivor Wynne is just my dream and I think there are many reasons why it could work, but who am I to say it is the best option or not.

My biggest beaf, is that so many people will agree with us when we say Ivor Wynne is one of the best places to watch football and nothing says community than a stadium nestled amongst one. If there is a way to work with that (and I know we have been working with it for 60 years), then in these tough econimic times where ticket, concession, and parking increases may have a reverse affect with regards to what we want to achieve with a new stadium, sticking with what we know works on many levels, and tweaking it to work for those that can't see the forest for the trees, than can we save a boatload of cash and the team, and feel good about a community building project that includes our beloved, historic, 'I can build a scaffold in my driveway and see the game as clear as day' kind of a stadium?

If we even widened the sidelines just a bit (we would have to replace the south stands anyway), even if we lose a couple of thousands seats, why can we not in turn wrap the endzone around to meet the north stands? Why can we not wrap the north and south stands to butt up against the scoreboard? Really? I have seen similar such designs. I know the pricetag is going up here, but we could probably make Ivor Wynne 45,000 seats and Grey cup eligable, if engineers felt that that could be done. Replace the south stands and work on a new 10 year plan. A plan that would see a Grey Cup back in Hamilton again for the first time in many years.

Maybe these are all pipe dreams, but they are quesitons I just have to ask. Like I have said before, I am not a huge fan of the West Harbour idea but what I loved about that versus the East Mountain campaign, was that at least if Ivor Wynne's fate was sealed, yes, one community would lose a big part of what has made it what it is for the past 60 years, but another community would benefit from what such a venue could bring. But in saying that, does the West Harbor community (as I asked above), really want a stadium in their backyard? Don't we think that because of the exposure these lands have recieved over the past year, that deveopment of that area will now happen on it's own - without a 25,000 seat stadium and boatloads of cars and buses pushing in and out of your neighborhood every other weekend?

I will tell you there are many pluses like thousands of people being able to easily walk to the stadium which you don't get form remote sites like Confed or East Mountain, but somoene who lives right next door to Ivor Wynne, should sit and have a chat with the folks of the Harbor so they know what they would be getting yourselves into, before the Cats say 'okay, we'll play in the Harbor'.

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