Plenty of drama in stadium project — in the 1950s

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/11/2010 (5748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You don’t hear all that many echoes on the Canadian Prairies.

But now hear this.

If you think David Asper, his Creswin Properties, et al, are having problems putting the money together to build a new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, consider what the football faithful went through to build the one we’re now intent on finally abandoning to the pigeons, the squirrels and the wrecking ball.

The keeper of that part of our history is Wendy Hart. Her grandfather, Harold West, was one of the founders of the Credit Union Society of Manitoba and the man behind the drive that wanted to make what became Winnipeg Stadium — and later Canad Inns Stadium — as community-owned as the football team.

“I keep thinking that this 60-year-old story is passé,” Wendy said in an email, “and then suddenly it seems oh so relevant.”

The Greater Winnipeg Cooperative Sports Society Ltd., as it was called when it was created in 1949, was an effort to use a public stock offering to pay for a new stadium that would accommodate 15,000 spectators. It would replace the 9,100-seat Osborne Stadium, which was centrally situated across from the Manitoba Legislative Building but had been rendered too small by the charismatic presence and passing arm of Jack Jacobs.

Prospective investors for the new stadium were encouraged to purchase one unit of four shares for $20. Although it’s hard to believe there was anything in it for the investors other than being part of something big and Blue.

“Perhaps people in general wanted to — NEEDED TO — believe in the dream that the ordinary citizens of Winnipeg really COULD own a stadium,” Wendy wrote.

The organizers were targeting a total of $300,000 that would start construction on a “modern and spacious stadium,” as the ad phrased it.

Sound familiar?

But, as I was saying, if you think things are a mess today — and they are — consider the confluence of crises the Greater Winnipeg Cooperative Sports Society faced back in the day.

There was a postwar ban on steel for recreational projects, a rail strike, and finally the ultimate disaster.

A flood of epic proportions.

“Yes,” Wendy wrote, “the fundraising campaign kicked off May 1, 1950.”

As many as 120 canvassers had been going door-to-door before the river water joined them.

“My grandfather issued a press release urging Winnipeggers to contribute to flood relief rather than the stadium campaign. The drive was resumed again in the fall, but much of the momentum was lost, with so many Winnipeggers needing every single hard-earned dollar to recover from flood damage.”

Her grandfather hung on, like a drowning man clutching a piece of driftwood. Meanwhile, a group of businessmen had another plan to build a stadium. The finished product would be nicknamed “The House that Jack Built,” after the gifted quarterback. But it was really the group led by W. Culver Riley that did the deal.

They did it by negotiating a loan from the Great-West Life Assurance Co., which the city guaranteed, with the province’s approval. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Great-West Life would end up building its new headquarters on the site of the old Osborne Stadium.

As for the Greater Winnipeg Cooperative Sports Society Ltd., by July of 1953, with the new Winnipeg Stadium opening less than a month away, the company was liquidated.

After expenses were deducted from the less than $12,000 raised, the shareholders received $1.60 on the original $5 share.

As for what it cost to build the old stadium when it was new, it came in at $500,000, which was $100,000 over budget. Although, interestingly enough, $500,000 is what Great-West Life had initially agreed to loan Culver Riley and the group that would become Winnipeg Enterprises.

But, alas, David Asper is no Culver Riley. Creswin Properties is no Great-West Life. And today, it might take $200 million to fill the six-month-old hole in the ground at the University of Manitoba where the new stadium is supposed to rise one day.

Along with the ultimate cost of the project.

But, to put all this stadium history in perspective, I should also add this.

The public offering by the Greater Winnipeg Cooperative Sports Society, followed by a loan from Great-West Life, only happened because postwar Winnipeggers rejected the idea of spending taxpayers’ money on a new stadium.

And that’s where the echo ends.

We won’t get that chance.

It looks like we’re all going to be paying for a new stadium. And we won’t even be getting $1.60 a share.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca