David Asper is doing an end-zone dance while Leo Ledohowski is calling for a flag after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers chose to pursue Polo Park as the possible home of a new football stadium.
In a battle between two of Winnipeg's most powerful businessmen, CanWest Global president/CEO Asper outplayed Canad Inns president/CEO Ledohowski to win the right to work out a deal to build a replacement for 54-year-old Canad Inns Stadium.
After 10 weeks of deliberations, the Winnipeg Football Club's board of directors decided Tuesday to enter into negotiations with the Asper-owned Creswin Properties to build a $145 million football stadium/retail complex on the site of the existing stadium on Maroons Road.
Those negotiations could take months, as Asper seeks $80 million in scarce federal and provincial funds and wants to own the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — a move many football fans consider controversial.
But Asper was clearly jubilant as his Polo Park-area plan beat out Ledohowski’s $520 million proposal to build a a "destination complex" that involved two parts: A football stadium/convention centre attached to a waterpark/hotel on the former Canada Packers site in St. Boniface, partly funded by a new commercial development on the site of the existing stadium in Polo Park.
"The temptation is to jump up and down. I do think it’s a very positive and important day, moving forward for the football club and for the city," Asper said at a press conference on the main floor of downtown’s CanWest Global Place.
"(But) we’ve all got to be patient. This is a major deal for the community and it is deserving of much due consideration in order to get it right."
Bomber board president Ken Hildahl said he and his colleagues went with the Asper proposal because it better ensured the financial viability of the football club, which crawled out of a $5.4 million debtload in 2000 with the help of the city, province, fans and corporate sector.
The team is now $700,000 in debt.
"We went into this with two to three goals in mind. One was to break the boom-bust cycle of couple of good years, five bad years, couple of good years," Hildahl said in a phone interview.
"Secondly, we needed to develop a plan or approach that guaranteed the financial viability of professional football in Winnipeg for years to come. And the third was to try and get a new facility or a facility that would meet the needs of the fans."
Canad Inns’ boss Ledohowski, however, called the football club’s decision to go with Asper "mind-boggling" and said the decision-making process was neither transparent nor fair.
Ledohowski said the football club initially forbade Canad Inns from sharing its plans with the public and all three levels of government, which are moves Asper made back in the winter.
The hotelier also complained the Bomber board only held a single, 45-minute meeting with him and did not travel to Grand Forks, N.D. to see a Canad Inns hotel/waterpark complex in action.
"I would have thought for a half-billion-dollar proposal, we would have had more than a short, 45-minute conversation, where no real reservations were expressed about our abilities," he said at Canad Inns’ head office in Garden City.
"I believe the lack of transparency has led to misinformation in the public domain. I’m very disappointed with the process."
In April, Manitoba Premier Gary Doer chastised Ledohowski for failing to give the NDP government the heads-up about his proposal. On Tuesday, the premier applauded the Bomber board’s decision to go with Asper because of the economic spin-offs associated with the Polo Park site.
But Doer would not commit to granting $40 million of provincial funds to the stadium project, as Asper has proposed.
"I think at the end of the day, there will be a mix of public (and) private ownership," Doer said. "The Province of Manitoba will not contribute to anything that doesn’t keep the Bombers in Winnipeg in perpetuity. It won’t be an unfettered public asset."
Vic Toews, Manitoba’s senior federal minister, also would not commit to $40 million for a football stadium in Winnipeg. But the Treasury Board minister did not rule out the possibility of federal funds for the project, as $46 million in federal infrastructure money has been earmarked for Manitoba.
Toews said most of that money is already geared toward the City of Winnipeg’s $1.2 billion sewage-system upgrade and the province may have other, more pressing needs, such as roads and bridges.
"Our government has given record amounts of money to infrastructure in the recent budget, but we still have to focus our resources in view of the critical needs we face," Toews told the Free Press via e-mail.
Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz, meanwhile, said the city is not prepared to offer any money toward the construction of a new stadium, noting the city-owned land Asper and the Bombers would use to build a stadium/retail complex is worth $30 million.
"There’s a significant contribution right there," the mayor said.
Asper would not say how he came up with the round figure of $80 million he desires from the federal and provincial governments but insisted he needs that public investment in order to see a return on his $65 million investment.
Manitoba Tory leader Hugh McFadyen suggested Asper is merely presenting $80 million as an opening position in negotiations, while the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a fiscally conservative lobby group, denounced the proposed funding as excessive.
— With files from Mary Agnes Welch
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca
ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
