Raise the Hammer

@Sask.

Sadly you are month's behind on this debate. Mr Young is not simply willing to be a tenant. He wants to "manage" the facility for the city for a "fee". For this he wants naming rights and revenues for a period of no shorter than 10 years. So yes he does want his cake and to eat it for essentially no capital outlay by himself and a stranglehold on revenues for a minimum 10 year period. Fine. But if those are his terms, he should not expect to dictate to the taxpayers of this city where this facility will be built. He cries foul about West Harbour yet to date has not presented ONE SINGLE PIECE of paper supporting his claim he can't be profitable at WH.

This was and is about the TiCats having a stranglehold on all gameday revenue streams and controlling all other facility revenue streams by becoming a facility manager. That has been the rationale of the TiCats since their eleventh hour refusal of WH. There are (pun intended) rheems of evidence to show that downtown/waterfront stadiums work and contribute to city building and revitalization. The problem is the TiCats want the whole pie to themselves not just a piece.

We have a long term tenant for our current stadium Ivor Wynne. Its the TiCats. Despite what amounts to a 1.4 million dollar a year operating subsidy from the city and all of game day concession sales they are still crying poor. So why would or should the City of Hamilton turn over the keys to a brand new stadium that it paid most of the freight for to Mr Young for a period of no less than ten years when he has shown (or claims) that he cannot make money where he is now? Yes IWS is 80 years old. It lacks certain amenities. But geographically it is at no greater disadvantage than any other stadium in the league and some of them make money. Why? Because the teams win on a regular basis and put an effort in to growing their fan base by winning rather than figuring out how to orchestrate what amounts to a coup d'etat over a local governmental process to get what they want.

Second. I am sorry but two years of .500 records is nothing to crow about. Throw in two first round play off losses to put an exclamation point on fans frustration. The team won the Grey Cup in 1999 and it's been shyte until the last two seasons since then. This is not Saskatchewan. We live in an area where there are many options for people to spend their discretionary entertainment income. Thus putting a winning product on the field EVERY YEAR is vital to the TiCats success.