Stadium deal details Friday
Great day, Blue chairman predicts
By PAUL FRIESEN and ROSS ROMANIUK, Winnipeg Sun
The details of a reorganized deal on how a new football stadium being built for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be financed has been tentatively scheduled for Friday.
Bill Watchorn, chairman of the franchise’s board of directors, confirmed the news Wednesday night.
“It’s (going to be) a great news day,” Watchorn said.
The news came just hours after Mayor Sam Katz sounded the alarm that time was running out to put the much-maligned deal together. Katz said earlier in the day he wanted a firm plan to put before city council at its Dec. 15 meeting.
The mayor said he was continuing to try to secure a “guaranteed maximum price” for the project, whose construction cost is speculated to have risen to about $200 million or more — up considerably from the $115-million pricetag given last spring — for a 33,000-seat CFL stadium at the University of Manitoba.
“Time is of the essence, and we’re running out of time,” Katz said. “If you can’t get to a guaranteed maximum price today, are you going to get to one tomorrow? Maybe,” Katz said.
“That’s one of the key concerns, and that has to be accomplished. As you and I are speaking right now, we’re not there. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen by this evening or tomorrow. That certainly is possible.”
Prior to Watchorn spilling the beans, Premier Greg Selinger said he was hopeful the agreement would be complete before Christmas.
“That’s the plan. Everybody wants to do that. We think there’s been a lot of good work done by everybody to get it done by that stage,” he said. “We’d like to bring it forward and get it decided by Christmas.”
The original deal fell apart when construction costs skyrocketed and David Asper’s Creswin Properties — which spearheaded the original deal — struggled to find interest for its proposed pedestrian mall at the current Polo Park stadium site, then balked at paying the cost overruns as originally promised.
Neither Watchorn nor Katz would say whether Creswin is still involved in the project, with the mayor only saying the company remains involved until it’s decided otherwise.
It has been widely speculated the province — which originally gave Asper a loan to finance construction — will now pay the lion’s share of costs, with the Bombers playing a more prominent role in bankrolling the new stadium, which is under construction.
“(The province) has to feel comfortable. And the city. It really will address the project cost, the project management and, most likely, financing,” said Watchorn, of the new deal.
“Whatever we do will protect the integrity and guarantee the integrity of the Bombers.”
— With files from Paul Turenne
wpgsun.citydesk@sunmedia.ca
