Raise the Hammer

I think the 'Driveway to Driveway' label that we put on Bob Young specifically, should also be lost and be more inclusive.

All large sporting, concert, festival, convention events attract lot's of drivers. They need places to park and perhaps no matter how many transit options you give them from LRT to GO Transit, free buses or shuttles on game days or free DARTS service, there will stiill be those that drive. One solution would be more high rises in the area to create more walk up traffic. Insert development attractors like LRT and a brand new stadium to warrant these types of developments.

If I wasn't able to walk to games, lived in an area within Hamilton with less than desirable bus service, or lived out of town especially Niagara or London way, I would most likely contribute to the 'driveway to driveway' experience myself.

Bob Young probably doesn't find larged paved lots any more attractive than you or I, but realizes through other examples, that 1. parking lots are required because people drive to the games and 2. they are also a way to generate more capital and to make a 'business' like a professional sports franchise, more sustainable with revenue from parking required to offset the costs of running these businesses.

There likely isn't much Bob himself can do to change that need for revenue outside of concessions, tickets, and merchanise. The league as a whole would possibly have to look at how it could cut costs perhaps through players salaries or otherwise, to make it cheaper to own a team.

The CFL is already much less about money than the MLB, NHL, NFL, and NBA, but I do agree that for us to be able to open the market up even broader to allow for sustainable franchises on the coast, Quebec, maybe London and the likes, we would have to look at stepping the CFL back into an even more grass-roots league. Salaries still can't be on the cheap because these players bodies are fairly beat up by the end of their careers. Look at Matt Dunnigan and the problems he still faces with all the concussions he suffered.

But until my statement above happens, these are the needs of these franchises and rather than just saying stick your parking lots, I would like to work very closely with the team to see what alternatives are available without sacrificing our budget, to make this as green a district as possible from more grass/trees in parking lots to even using alternatives to blacktop that others on this site have provided links for. Even better as I stated, would be to have lots within walking distance instead of throwing distance to the stadium, but I think we do need to listen to the needs from both sides, instead of placing labels.

Comment edited by lawrence on 2011-07-18 13:46:47