Polo Park was once the city’s sporting hub

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2017 (3496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Athletics and recreational facilities were part of the Polo Park area for the better part of a hundred years — from parks and racetracks in the early 20th century to the Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg Stadium  and the Winnipeg Velodrome in the last half of the 1900s.

In the past 20 years, all of those facilities have been demolished and replaced by retail stores and restaurants, office and retail space and, in the case of the Stadium, an empty store and empty lot.

When the Bombers beat the Montreal Alouettes 19-11 on Nov. 3, 2012 at Canad Inns Stadium (formerly Winnipeg Stadium) the Polo Park era of Winnipeg sports was officially ended.

In June 2012, the city announced the sale of the stadium to Polo Park Holdings Inc., owner of the nearby Polo Park shopping centre, for $30.25 million. The sale was finalized in April 2013 and demolition of the stadium commenced in June of that year, with commercial development expected to fill up the huge site.

Since then, only one quarter of the stadium site has been developed — for a Target Canada store which now sits vacant after Target shut down its Canadian operations.

Now the site is an unused eyesore, which begs the question:

If the redevelopment is unlikely to happen quickly, could the site at least be turned into a functional overflow parking lot for Polo Park and the surrounding shopping area? Certainly more shopping centre parking is desperately needed every Christmas season.

As long as the site remains and looks undeveloped, football fans will continue to complain about the location of Investors Group Field.

Fred Morris is a community correspondent for St. James. Reach him at fredmorris@hotmail.com