I remember when former premier Gary Doer balked at the idea of contributing $40 million of provincial money into a new CFL football stadium, calling it “too rich.”
I also remember Mayor Sam Katz saying around the same time that the city had no money to help build a professional football stadium and rejected the idea of donating the land at Polo Park to any new stadium project.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has always said the federal government is not in the business of funding professional football stadiums, but would contribute $20 million to an amateur-sport component of the deal.
We were told by politicians like Doer that any new stadium would have to be “private-sector led,” and taxpayers would have a limited role in building it.
Doer said he would be willing to donate back whatever taxes were generated from the construction of a new stadium, which was then estimated at $17 million, but no more.
That position eventually killed David Asper’s first plan to build a $120-million stadium at Polo Park, which required $40 million each from the province and Ottawa.
Asper’s project then moved briefly to Point Douglas, but was roundly rejected and quickly shelved.
And then came the U of M deal. Remember that original deal? Asper proudly announced he was willing to put in more than $100 million of his own money into a project that would include a “very doable,” high-end retail project at Polo Park.
His announcement was met with glee by all, including naysayers who conceded this was a deal taxpayers simply couldn’t refuse.
Some wondered aloud whether the deal was just too good to be true.
Sadly, their suspicions proved right as the entire project began to fall apart over the following year, spiralling downward into a cesspool of lies and deceit.
It turns out the whole U of M stadium proposal was just a clever ruse, designed to draw taxpayers into a project they thought would be largely private-sector funded. In reality, it will be paid for almost entirely by taxpayers.
Less than three months ago, I sat down with Asper face-to-face and he told me he was willing to contribute tens of millions of dollars of his own money into this project, even if it meant never owning the Bombers.
“I’m doing it because I’m prepared to compromise profit that we would otherwise make on a commercial development,” Asper said in August. “I know people have trouble believing it but there is some goodness still out there and I hope that people accept that there’s an altruistic motive.”
We have trouble believing it because it’s BS.
Asper now calls the whole project a “public works project” and said he’s happy to withdraw from it entirely.
Can you say “sucker?” Forgive us, David, if we no longer take you seriously.
All the while Asper and Premier Greg Selinger perpetuated the lie that the current stadium at Polo Park requires $52.5-million in upgrades to be safe and operational, when in fact their own engineering report pegs it at $14.4 million.
The $52.5-million number includes a complete overhaul of the stadium, including new luxury boxes, expanded seating, a new press box and expensive building code upgrades that would only be required if those massive refurbishments occurred.
But why let facts get in the way of good old-fashion subterfuge?
Government officials and Winnipeg Blue Bombers brass are now meeting without Asper, which means the project is officially a “public-sector led” one.
What used to be “too rich” for Doer will now be “not enough” for Selinger, who appears happy to write a blank cheque for this project.
And it will come straight out of your pocket.
For more, visit Brodbeck’s blog Raise a Little Hell at winnipegsun.com. Reach Tom by e-mail at
tom.brodbeck@sunmedia.ca.
for the link.
