Bombers make payment on stadium, still decades before debt paid off

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/12/2015 (3769 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Football Club has made another $4.5-million payment toward the cost of building Investors Group Field, the two-year-old stadium at the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus, but it will be decades before the debt is paid off.

The Blue Bombers announced Wednesday they’ve made their second annual payment to Triple B Stadium, the shell company that owns the stadium. The non-profit Canadian Football League team is scheduled to make two more payments of $4.5 million in 2016 and 2017, a $3.5-million payment in 2018 and then payments of no more than $4.4 million a year for another 40 years, ending in 2058.

The $210-million stadium was financed through $30 million worth of initial grants from the city and province, $10 million to date of additional provincial contributions and small loans, a $10-million Triple B Stadium loan from CIBC and a $160-million stadium-construction loan from the province. There are also approximately $35-million worth of outstanding stadium repairs that are the subject of a lawsuit and may be covered by insurance.

The football club is responsible for repaying Triple B Stadium for the principal and interest on the $10-million CIBC loan as well as $85 million of the $160-million provincial loan. The city and province are covering the remaining $75 million through new property taxes flowing from the redevelopment of the former Canad Inns Stadium site at Polo Park. The development of that site, which includes an empty Target store, has been slow.

The football club’s initial loan payments — in 2014, 2015 and 2016 — are devoted to principal, not interest, making the final tally for the project subject to compound interest as well as the uncertainty surrounding stadium repairs, which include the replacement of all concrete concourses.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca