Comment 55881

By H+H (registered) - website | Posted January 12, 2011 at 08:07:14

S@JonD

Thanks and thanks. Your letter is excellent.

I have been corresponding directly with a few Councillors. As recently as this morning I asked one Councillor to consider getting a financial concession out of the Cats. Even though we both agreed that this deal was madness, I think we should not reward unprincipled behaviour on the part of the Cats. Surely, even die-hard Cats fans will give me that, won't they?

So, what could the concession be? How about the City of Hamilton receiving all parking revenues until such time as the citizens of Hamilton have been paid back their investment in staff time and consultants' fees ($1 million+ according to Rob Rossini) wasted on chasing a stadium location? How about if we insist the TiCats set up a WH Fund based on some formula so that monies from their operation help to ensure the remediation/development of the $10 million plot of land the taxpayers of Hamilton assembled as part of this whole "spin again" stadium nonsense? Without the involvement of 3 levels of government, that site likely will remain a new dead zone for many years to come. How about we insist on getting all of the naming rights money and that all of it go into moving the WH forward?

Finally, for the moment, something else that disturbs me. Mayor Bratina pushed back on the scalable stadium in the West harbour, saying, "Do we really need another 5,000 seat stadium in Hamilton?" Well, if I read the reports correctly, the TiCats plan on removing one of the few we have (Timmis) in order to create more parking. So, not only do we not add one, we take one off the list too. Proving, I suppose, that two Bob's don't make a right.

gcrawford

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