‘This can help you win’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/04/2010 (5657 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THERE we were, standing under the stands on the west concourse at Canad Inns Stadium, trying to keep our shoes free of the pigeon droppings and waiting for an announcement on a new football stadium.

The location, damp and dirty and decrepit was, no doubt, chosen to drive home the point that the old ballpark has outlived its usefulness. Point made.

By the time the politicians were done patting each other on the back and taking their bows, one thing was clear — football in Manitoba just got a major shot of talent.

The talent will come in the form of bricks, mortar and video screens and will attract other talent. The kind that catches balls, throws 50-yard touchdown passes and crushes quarterbacks.

The Bombers and the University of Manitoba will get a new stadium at the U of M campus in Fort Garry and football in this province will step into the modern era.

"We try to live in the present and (a new stadium) is so far away from what we’re doing. But this is a great thing for fans to get reinvested in the Bombers and the Bisons," said Bombers coach Paul LaPolice. "It’s going to help in the recruiting wars. If you’re offering comparable money to a free agent, he’s going to go to the team with the state-of-the-art facility and the opportunity to win a championship."

For Bisons coach Brian Dobie, his sales job just got a whole lot easier. Playing for the Bisons at the new stadium will have an NCAA Division One feel to it when the park opens in 2012. Young men choosing a university football program will have to look long and hard to beat what the U of M will now be offering.

"This can help you win. Absolutely," said LaPolice. "I’ve been on teams that have won championships in facilities that aren’t great but this can be a tool to help you. We want our players to have an environment to help them be successful and take pride in."

The stadium, expected to cost in the neighbourhood of $115 million, will be a 33,000-seat facility capable of expanding to 40,000-plus for Grey Cups and will be fully enclosed with overhead protection for 80 per cent of the seating.

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"We’ve talked through what we need as a football operations department. This place should have this, this place should have that. I’ve handed one of those lists over to Joe Mack (GM) and Jim Bell (president)," said LaPolice. "From what I understand, they have a chunk of square footage and they haven’t made a decision on where everything goes. At some point we’ll start the process of where everything goes. Meeting rooms for the team and for individual coaches and their units."

The stadium will have many of the bells and whistles an upscale park has these days with large video screens above both end zones, top-quality concessions, modern team facilities, locker-rooms, offices and training facilities.

Also promised in the deal announced on Wednesday is a guarantee from the CFL the club will host a Grey Cup game within five years of the stadium’s expected completion in 2012.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca