Mayor promises first-class stadium

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This article was published 03/08/2010 (5541 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Mayor Sam Katz says if a new football stadium comes in over budget it’s up to the private sector to pay for the extra costs.

“The private sector is responsible for cost overruns,” Katz said today.

And when Katz, during a hastily called press conference after a story in today’s Free Press, was asked whether the city would put more money into the pot to build the stadium, he would only say “They (Creswin) are firming up the dollars.

“Until you get that number you don’t know what you’re talking about… it’s theoretical.”

But Katz said if Creswin Properties decides to cut substantial portions of the proposed design, city council itself would have to vote on the deal all over again.

“I will tell you that your’s truly, the Mayor and the Premier, are committed to making sure that a stadium is built and that it’s a first class stadium and when you and the fans go there you will say ‘wow’.”

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Creswin Properties originally said it was prepared to build a new home at the University of Manitoba for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for $115 million and mock-up drawings and images were shown to its partners — the provincial government, the City of Winnipeg, the university, and the football club.

But while the province and the city believe the design of the stadium was fixed, Creswin has said only the $115 million was locked in stone, along with regular construction overruns in the neighbourhood of five to eight per cent above that cost. Creswin now says the design it showed was based on very rough numbers and if that stadium is built it would cost $139 million.

Meanwhile, the first construction work will begin on Wednesday for the new football stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In a statement, Creswin Properties said construction equipment will begin staging at the property in the morning before sod and topsoil will begin being stripped away in the afternoon.

The company says the excavations on the site will take about three months to complete.

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.