A never ending story

The World Cup draws closer, but still no sign of the new Toronto stadium

The agony of Toronto's new soccer arena is far from over. Time flies, the World Cup draws closer, yet the choice of the location for the facility hasn't been made. Two locations are still open: the Canadian National Exhibition grounds and Downsview Park. Both have strong political backers, including Italian politicians. The waterfront option is liked by Toronto mayor David Miller and his deputy Joe Pantalone; the alternative in the park where the 2002 World Youth Day was held has the support of Federal minister for Immigration and Ontario Joe Volpe and of Toronto city councillor Peter Li Preti. The project is the same and both areas are easily accessed. Only a decision is required. "There's not much time left," remarked minister Volpe. "Work must start by November, or the stadium won't be ready on time for the World Cup." Toronto deputy mayor Pantalone did not immediately return our calls for comments.
The story of this decision is quite curious, and its evolution has been rather peculiar. At first, finding any location appeared difficult. Now, on the contrary, everybody wants the facility, with such determination that it's hard to choose. So many soccer lovers would be a nice thing, provided that the arena finally gets built.
It all began in the spring of 2004, when the construction of an arena on the area of the former Varsity Stadium, on the UofT campus, alongside a hockey arena that was supposed to become the training facility for the Toronto Maple Leafs, was announced. At the time, even the Toronto Argos were rumoured to be involved, with an eye to playing in the future arena. Shortly thereafter, however, numerous strange difficulties arose: noise(?), space, management costs. The first to go was the hockey arena; later, the University withdrew its funding and the project went down, despite the pledge of $35 million in public funds ($27 million from the Federals, $8 million from the Province). Joe Volpe insisted with the Government to release these funds anyway, in order for Toronto to have a soccer-only stadium, the feather in the cap for the Under 20 World Cup of 2007.
Switching universities, it was YorkU to propose a new location. Everything seemed ready: the project was to be funded by the university, the Toronto Argos, and the Government. The announcement of last fall included the presentation of the drawings: a facility seating 25,000 people, reserved for soccer and football, ideally suited to become the home (in addition to the Argos, the Canadian national soccer team and the university teams) of a team playing in the Major League Soccer (MLS), North America's foremost professional soccer league.
A few months later came an unforeseen blow: the Argos withdrew from the project because the Rogers Centre had offered them to continue using that facility for free. This defection meant a sudden hole of $15 million, and shortly thereafter YorkU also withdrew: the blow appeared fatal. Some English-language media cheered the news.
Meanwhile, Maple Leafs Sport and Entertainment (MLSE) requested an MLS team for 2007. An important move, probably decisive to salvage the whole project, even though Larry Tannenbaum and partners have yet to pay a penny, and don't seem overly willing to. The arrival of Ontario's biggest sports concern suddenly imbued everybody with the urge to build a stadium. Over the course of a few weeks, available locations shot from zero to four: CNE, Downsview, Vaughan, and a fourth one that was never identified but that everybody confirmed existed. The boss of Canadian Soccer Association had announced a decision by end of July, but the deadline passed in silence. Now we learn that two locations are still being considered: CNE and Downsview Park. It may be hard to choose which would be better, but it's not hard to see why both are so doggedly determined to be chosen. The project would appear to entail a complete revamping of the area, similarly to Los Angeles' Home Depot Centre, where other soccer fields, athletic tracksand tennic courts have been built (the Los Angeles pro tennis tournament is played there). We also learned that, were the CNE area to be chosen, the arena would not be built in the same spot as the old one but would require demolition of another building.
The issue also has political overtones: it's no mystery that Joe Volpe and David Miller often have different visions on several matters.
Needless to say, it would be a real pity if the location were not chosen soon enough to allow work to be completed on time for the World Cup. Recently, MLSE (which will cover operating costs through the MLS team) declared its preference for the CNE area, and once again the position of the owners of the Maple Leafs could swing the balance. The CSA should take decisive action, but its boss Kevin Pipe only said that a decision will reqire four more weeks. The winners of this match are unknown; the losers, as always, are the soccer fans.

Publication Date: 2005-08-28
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5510