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Earlier this afternoon, the TORONTO 2015 Pan American/Parapan American Games and its partners announced the funding details for Hamilton's brand new, world-class facility that will serve as the home of the Tiger-Cats beginning in 2014.
This new venue will revolutionize our gameday experience at Tiger-Cats games and all the other sports and entertainment events it will make possible. From individual seats for every fan to endzone patios to improved sightlines, this new stadium will provide you with a world-class live entertainment experience featuring unparalleled comfort and intimacy, state-of-the-art technology and premium amenities, including excellent restaurant quality food and beverage options.
When Ivor Wynne was built in 1928 it was state-of-the-art for its day and it contributed to increased support for the Tiger-Cats. That increase in fan support contributed in no small way to the success of the team on the field, and for the brand of the City of Hamilton, in the following decades. I believe the new Pan Am stadium presents a very similar opportunity for our City and our team.
To learn more about Hamilton's new stadium, and to see some photos and a video, click here www.newstadiumnewexperience.com.
Oskee Wee Wee,
Bob Young
Caretaker, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
It's a 22,000 seat stadium Bob. Its a minor league joke. It will not be exceptional, it will not be state of the art and it will not enhance anything since the team is a loser. I appreciate all that you have done for the team and the city but now you are starting to sound like a snake oil salesman. Rational people in this city just aren't buying what you are selling anymore. We are getting what amounts to a small town stadium in a bad location that will not meet the needs of this city in the future.
ReplyDelete24,000 for football, all in. Can be expanded by a few thousand for anyone particular game (Labour Day for example) and 40,000 for a Grey Cup game.
DeleteI was at the announcement and ask the people who are building it
It's still an embarrassment to the citizens of this city. We are once again a laughingstock.
DeleteWhat's embarrassing are the fools we have on council. They screwed up this process from day one. Council should act like a Board of Directors, set up policy and get out of the way. Staff should have recommended sites that made sense for ALL involved, described there reasons why and then have Council vote. Not take many potential sites off the table because it suited one councillor.
DeleteCouncil did their job. They did the studies and picked a location, the West Harbour and that was after they consulted with the Tiger Cats who said they would accepted whatever the city chose. Anyone who was following the process knows that council did their job. It was the Cats and other outside interests who sabotaged the process at the last minute for whatever reasons. Now we are going to be stuck with an inferior stadium in a bad location.
DeleteCouncil failed period. When you don't work well with an anchor tenant, you failed!
DeleteThe TiCats were told to keep all negotiations out of the public. They did. They told the city they had problems with that site, and a few other sites. Then old Chad and Llyod spun there City-Destroying magic and here we are.
DeleteIt's the City's fault!!!!
This ought to be the most underwhelming and uninspired design I have ever seen in my life.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is going to be showcased as Canada's and Ontario's architectural design & engineering ingenuity???
Such is the natural outcome of an overtly politicized design/bidding process (which is no different than what routinely happens in many third-world countries and banana republics), where politicians and bureaucrats fancy themselves to be designers, architects or planners-- and directly create the political conditions for such monstrosities to be conceived and built.
This is the "product" of an intensely incestuous and closed market approach which abhors competition, and hence, does not even know what design excellence is all about.
There is still time to retract this foolishness which is being unveiled so proudly.
Stop, and think for the sake of the next generation - and invite some professional designers to submit a design that can be considered worthy of being called a legacy.
Mahesh P. Butani
It's over!!!
DeleteTime to move on
Why? So we can keep repeating the same mistake over and over? The people who perpetrated this aesthetic and fiscal disaster would just love it if we all got over it and 'moved on'. I for one, don't plan on obliging them.
DeleteNicely articulated Mahesh...right on the money.
DeleteIt was a terrible decision. Everyone knows that. Thta is what happens when you have poor leadership. But let's go on from here. The nay sayers aren't helping.
ReplyDeleteGreat response
DeleteSubstantially more "ow" than "wow". This is meant to be the fulcrum on which the fortunes of a near-bankrupt club are reversed? This is meant to inspire Hamiltonians for the next 50 years?
ReplyDeleteGiven the cutting-edge blandness of the design, they should be able to hawk naming rights to Rona or Home Depot. Looks like a big box store without a lid. The very fact that we're looking for flattery in comparisons to IWS 1928 is telling.
This stadium will help brand Hamilton, but not in a positive way.
Next up: "How much more would you expect to pay for such a revolutionary game-day experience? Five, 10, 15 percent? Turns out, you're in the ballpark."
ReplyDeleteSource of this statement?
Delete"But let's go on from here. The nay sayers aren't helping."
ReplyDelete"It's over!!!Time to move on"
These comments aren't just being found here. They're being seen on other articles on other sites. And I'll admit that even more than the design itself, they fascinate me.
I see them as understandable resignation, a practical reaction to a pretty unsavoury set of experiences. And yet I still disagree with the sentiment. Mostly because this is what we do as Hamiltonians. What we've come to do as Hamiltonians. We accept what we're given, shrug and go back to our default, 'legacy malaise' setting.
Term limits? Nah; though we surely need...and deserve...better leadership, all of this just typifies what the real problem is, the other part of the formula, the part that involves us.
The stadium result is going to be replicated in the casino result and the radial separation bylaw result and the ward boundary reform result and the AEGD result...ad nauseam.
How about we stop blaming the employees and start making efforts at becoming better employers?
Yeah, except that there was a lot of ruckus, polls, protests etc. Sometimes you gotta admit that poor leadership is poor leadership. Vote them all out next election.
DeleteMr. Sarc