Is there any new news from ottawa on the stadium and the CFL expansion franchise?

Question

The last I heard, the CFL had awarded a provisional franchise to an Ottawa group based on that group's ability to get the City to resolve some of the problems at Frank Claire. That wasn't going too well as far as the articles I read. Then there was a crack in the stadim's lower deck on one side and the city demolished the lower deck eliminating seating for about 2K. 

As I understand it, nothing that remains is dangerous, but the stadium is now about 26K capacity and unbalanced looking. (Is that accurate?)Has anyone been on site since the demolition? What would it take to get that place surviavable? WOuld they have to permanently rebuild the lower deck, or could that be replaced with much cheaper bleachers/ temporary seating until money could be raised to do it properly?

Can anyone comment on the issues the stadium has that legitimately NEED to be fixed? It seems like if Montreal can survive in a 20K stadium, in terms of capacity the stadium is OK... What specifically is falling apart out there? Can any Ottawa residents give feedback on how far the city will go?

Anything new? Has anyone heard anything concrete on whether they will replace that lower deck? Will the city and the ownership group get that stadium repair done?

JB · Accepted Answer

There is a proposal in the hands of council to redevelop the Park.  Not just the stadium, all of Lansdowne Park.  It would include the stadium, a renovation of the arena, retail, residential, recreational fields and possibly an aquarium.  You can check it out at lansdownelive.ca  There is a vote on November 12th on how the city will proceed - and whether they will re-start an international design competition which many of the anti-sports crowd are pushing for.

antipopheadbanger - the group is actually quite organized.  The delays in the proposal came largely from delays on the city's part.  The city was responsible for engineering studies on the condition of the remainder of the stadium, which didn't get done until this summer.  The developers needed those results before they could finalize their plan.  

But you are right that the MLS proposal is a wrench in the plans.  Unfortunately, there won't be any news on Melnyk's bid for a few months, and Ottawa is a longshot on it anyways - Montreal is far more likely to get a team if they want to add another in Canada.  But it will make it difficult for council to vote on the present proposal with that dangling.

is it time to go home yet? · Answer

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do have a comment about the 20K stadium.  The best thing Montreal ever did was move out of their huge stadium into something smaller. It all goes back to supply and demand.  If people know they can walk up to a huge stadium on game day and get a ticket for $5 they can't be bothered to go.  If the stadium is much smaller and always sold out, everyone wants to be there, the atmosphere is better and the team can charge more for the tickets which makes the ticket sales revenue basically even between large/small stadium option.  

In my opinion it would be a mistake for Ottawa to have a huge 50K seat stadium.  Take a look at Toronto, the Rogers Center is a joke.  Terrible place to watch a game and even when they get 30K out to a game it looks empty.

antipopheadbanger · Answer

The last I heard is that Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Ottawa Senators, wants to build a soccer stadium to bring the MLS to town.  The city won't support both a renovation to Frank Clair and the building of a soccer stadium, so they're competing for the city's approval, basically.

The CFL potential ownership group waited until the 11th hour to get their proposal in, so it looks like they're not incredibly organized, either.

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Is there any new news from ottawa on the stadium and the CFL expansion franchise?

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