As you know stadium issues are rife in North America.
Quebec City is going to build a 400 million dollar hockey rink in the fervent hope that the NHL will return to the capital; ain't gonna happen.
Hamilton built Copps Arena so long ago with the same ideer that that rink is now, by NHL standards, a dinosaur.
Lansdowne Park in Ottawa is on the table right now; is it a shopping mall? a football stadium? a farmer's market? and how much will it cost the taxpayer of Ottawa [and Fort St. John and Moose Jaw and Moncton coz the feds will kick in coin too?]
www.fieldofschemes.com is a good place to track these power plays, your guv using money that could be spent on public health or transit to instead make rich guys richer.
And they tend to be a bit arrogant, pushy even, the rich guys who own these teams.
Take this from Charles Wang, the owner of the New York Islanders, Stanley Cup champions 1983 they were. Mr. Wang has given the suburb of Hempstead, New York a deadline to build him a new arena, a really cool arena with all the bells and whistles or else.
Hempstead town supervisor Kate Murray is having none of that and is quoted in Sports Ilustrated's October 12th issue as smartly pointing out that "We don't give Mr. Wang deadlines on bringing the Stanley Cup back to Long Island."
Would someone please tell Larry about this.
WFDS
"...your guv using money that could be spent on public health or transit to instead make rich guys richer."
ReplyDeleteI think the majority of Canadians will aprove of building a couple arenas if it means getting more NHL teams. It is not just "the rich guy" who makes money, it brings a lot of jobs and gives a tremendous boost to the local economy. And yes it is going to happen, there will be at least 3 failed NHL teams in the south in the near future.