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While building a stadium as part of a real estate development sounds like a good way to go, wouldn't there still be a need for substantial taxpayer investment? I can't see a real estate developer ever making a profit (or going ahead with the project) if they themselves have to come up with $200-$300 million for the stadium before any retail space is even built.

Jim Mullin wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 20, 2017 7:34 pm

For those who have visited Lansdowne Park before and after the redevelopment, you'll see where the real estate and development play transformed things.

I'll start finding out about the "after" tomorrow. From what I understand tthough the stadium rebuild and other redevelopment efforts surrounding it that were part of the overall proposal have totally transformed the Glebe district into a trendy and vibrant community within Ottawa.

A 10th team would not be a "windfall" for David Braley but it would increase the value of his team, at the very least by the estimated amount of his share of any expansion fee. Likely that slice of the pie is going be less than $1M but unless he thought he would lose that much by hanging on to the team a bit longer, why not wait until the Halifax scenario plays out before making a sale?

As for the location of a Maritime team, Halifax is the only logical location. It's the largest metropolitan area in the Maritimes. As romantic as it may sound to put a team in the centre of the Maritimes and hope that most fans will drive from somewhere else to attend a game, that's just a bad business plan. It may work at first, but for long can you expect people to drive 2-3 hours to see a football game? Especially if the team does not do well on the field? This notion that most of "Rider Nation" drives 4+ hours for every game is folklore. Yes, some fans do travel 4 hours from Prince Albert or North Battleford to go to games, but half the population of the province live in Sasakatoon and Regina (and another big chunk of the population live close to those cities) . Saskatoon is 2.5 hours from Regina. The number of fans who travel farther than Saskatoon on a regular basis is likely quite few. Most of those "out of towners" probably go to one or two games per year, either as a special event or on an organised excursion. The same could happen in the Maritimes. A trip to Halifax is much more attractive to a guy from Fredricton than a road trip to Fredricton is to a Haligonian.

For most Vancouver Islanders it’s a 4 hour trip (usually with an overnight stay in Vancouver) to see a Lions game ... and another 4 hour trip home. Many do it, but precious few do it as Season Ticket holders. When getting to and from the stadium costs an extra $300 per game, it is unlikely that these people can afford to be ST holders. A team in the Maritimes would only work in Halifax because it’s the only city where there’s even a prayer of selling enough STs.