Stadium deal payback for cash to premier: Tories

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This article was published 07/04/2010 (5690 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives alleged Tuesday that a $90-million deal to build a new football stadium at the University of Manitoba is Premier Greg Selinger’s way to say thanks to businessman David Asper.

During fiery debate during question period and later outside the house, Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen said Asper contributed $1,000 last fall to Selinger’s NDP leadership bid.

“I want to ask the premier, can he confirm, that the real problem behind the deal is the fact that he’s repaying somebody who made a major contribution to his campaign,” McFadyen said in the house.

Outside the chamber, McFadyen admitted the Asper family has also contributed to the PCs.

“But I’ve never made a deal with Mr. Asper or anybody else of the kind that was made last week here in Manitoba,” McFadyen said.

Selinger said outside the house McFadyen’s allegation was nonsense.

“He’s (Asper) made $10,000 of contributions in the last decade to the Conservative party and he’s made $1,000 to myself,” he said. “(It doesn’t) have an overwhelming influence on any decision because first of all, it’s not significant enough to do that and secondly, I don’t operate that way.”

Asper didn’t take the bait in his response to McFadyen’s allegation.

“The team is worth everything to this community, our reputation across the country and our sense of pride,” Asper said in an email. “Our community has come together to make it happen — the Bombers, provincial government, city government, federal government, University of Manitoba and the private sector.

“Benefits abound — jobs, economic spinoffs, new facilities for amateur sports, etc. This isn’t about me. It’s about and always has been about building a much-needed public facility and securing the long-term future for the Bombers. It’s just time to get it done.”

McFadyen also criticized the NDP for using the province’s new tax-increment financing legislation to help pay for the construction of the 33,000-seat, $115-million football stadium. The legislation was intended to help finance urban-renewal projects.

The deal will see the province taking out a $90-million loan to finance the bulk of the stadium’s construction costs, with $15 million more coming from the province in the form of a grant and $10 million from Asper’s Creswin Properties. Asper must also raise another $75 million to repay the provincial loan by March 1, 2016 if he wants to assume control of the non-profit Winnipeg Football Club.

“The stadium will always be under public control no matter who owns the team,” Selinger said. “It will always be a public asset and there will be an operating agreement to allow the Bombers to function there.”

Selinger said the loan will be paid back through taxes on the Polo Park site even if Asper has a change of heart or the old stadium land gets sold to a different developer. Taxes on the redeveloped Canad Inns Stadium site will earn government $7 million to $9.5 million a year, he said. Asper has said he’ll repay the loan by developing The Elms, the 650,000-square-foot upscale mall Creswin intends to build on the old stadium land. The city plans to sell Creswin the land at fair market value, believed to be about $30 million, once the company has secured enough tenants to proceed.

Creswin’s difficulty in getting tenants for The Elms project — originally a prerequisite for the new stadium — is what led the Selinger government to step in with a loan. Asper now hopes the retail project will open in 2013.

“We’re just focused on bringing it home, and that’s it,” Asper said in the email.

Construction on the stadium is expected to begin at the U of M this spring and be completed for the 2012 Canadian Football League season.

bruce.owen @freepress.mb.ca