Awning creates a looming problem

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/03/2012 (5027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bloody awning.

From a distance, the swooping steel beams that form an awning over the stands of the new Blue Bombers stadium are architecturally impressive.

Like a heat wave bouncing off the horizon on a steamy Prairie afternoon, the awning’s undulations are breathtaking, although it’s already clear the awning will be an almost entirely esthetic feature. Only the fans in the highest sections will get any relief from the weather, and then only if the rain falls straight down, which doesn’t happen often on the flatland.

Opinions will no doubt vary about the design and esthetics of any grand project like this. But football fans better love the awning, because it is at the heart of the multimillion-dollar delays in completion of the stadium.

Construction of the Investors Group Field, as it will be called, is now more than two months behind schedule because of those awnings. Although it has been a mild winter, high winds have delayed erection of the swooping beams. As a result, there has been no work on the lower bowl or the playing field.

We first saw the notorious awnings in 2007, when developer David Asper and his architect, Raymond Wan, released a rendering that showed a giant steel arc running the length of the stadium, supporting the undulating awnings on either side. Very dramatic, so much so that it seemed a little rich for the CFL. No matter. The awning became the essential feature nobody could do without. It was supposed to be the essential upgrade that demonstrated how much we love our football team and how affluent this community has become.

It was also a central issue in a battle over control of the project that led to Asper being dumped altogether, and the Bombers taking on the job of overseeing construction.

Asper originally broke ground at the Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba in May 2010. At that time, the project cost was estimated at $115 million. However, construction did not immediately begin, as the multiple partners in the project — the football team, the university, the city and the province — bickered over the fine print. As this continued, the clock was ticking and the costs were increasing.

By late summer, virtually no work was being done, and it was clear total costs were going up. How much more was not immediately known as detailed design drawings were not complete. The government partners and the football team claimed the delays were because of the cost overruns. Asper maintained the cost overruns were a result of the delays in getting a final agreement — and because nobody would change any of the original design features unveiled three years earlier.

This is where the awning becomes an essential issue.

In December, it was finally learned the stadium, as first conceived, would cost $190 million. There was plenty of finger pointing to be sure. There were lots of reasons behind the cost increase, but in the final analysis, the biggest issue was the refusal of the partners to scale down the stadium.

Asper recommended they dump the awning and some other features, to bring the cost down by almost $40 million. It is quite common to scale down large projects to control costs. The MTS Centre, for example, lost some of its original bells and whistles to lower costs. The partners in this project would have none of it. In the end, they kept the awning, but got rid of Asper.

It’s more than a little ironic now that the bloody awning, the element Asper begged everyone to drop, is at the root of the project delays and the added cost of rehabilitating the old stadium to host games in 2012.

It’s not entirely clear how much it will cost the Bombers to operate out of the old stadium because, right now, they don’t really know how long they’ll be back at Polo Park. What we do know is the football team was overly optimistic in its construction schedule. So optimistic was the team that it held a wake for the old stadium at the final game on Oct. 28.

Famous Bomber alumni were invited, the Snow Birds did a flypast and a nine-minute video tribute to the old stadium was shown at half time. It appears now the team had no margin for error in the construction schedule. So much for the video tribute.

There were those who felt the team jumped the gun by ditching Asper and heading out on this project on their own. The team has a guaranteed-maximum-price contract on construction, so it will be built for $190 million come hell or high winds. When it will be completed is another issue altogether.

More importantly, for those who thought the team was overly optimistic in its business plan, the delay in finishing the new stadium — the direct result of an overly optimistic construction schedule — shows the awnings could very well be a much bigger problem, for the new stadium and the team, and for the taxpayers whose hundreds of millions dollars are on the line.

So, when fans gather this spring at the woeful, decrepit stadium at Polo Park, cursing the poor concessions and the disgusting bathrooms and the construction gods for blowing so hard this winter, think of the awning. And what could have been.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca