Soccer stadium controversy still exists

Federal and Toronto city officials vow to keep pressure on Ottawa

A big step towards the construction a new soccer stadium in Toronto was been this past week when the representatives of the City of Toronto reached a tentative agreement with the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), the Canadian Soccer Association, and the CNE to build the new structure at the Canadian National Exhibition.
The agreement, that was reached after 9 days of difficult negotiations, needs now to be ratified by the Toronto City Council next week.
Particularly happy, the deputy major of Toronto Joe Pantalone: "It is a wonderful news," he told Tandem. Pantalone says that it is about time that Toronto has a top notch soccer stadium capable of hosting international competitions like the Under 20 World Soccer Tournament that will take place in Canada in 2007. The announcement has been welcomed with a certain degree of optimism by Joe Volpe, federal Immigration Minister, and Minister responsible for Ontario and GTA: "I don't know the details, but I thing it's a step in the right direction". Volpe says that he has no objection to the soccer stadium at the CNE "or any other place, as long as the guarantees requested by the federal government is met."
Volpe has always asked for a commitment to build the stadium in time for the 2007 soccer tournament, a guarantee that the City will assume all the cost overrun during the construction of the stadium, and a specific commitment from the City Council.
Those conditions seem to have been met by the agreement reached this week.
Here there are the details.

The City of Toronto will commit $9.8 million while MLSE will contribute $18 million (even though they will own naming rights for a maximum of $10 million). MLSE will also guarantee in writing that the stadium will be ready for June 2007, in time for the start of the FIFA 2007 Soccer championship, and that it will be responsible for any construction cost overruns.
As for the City of Toronto, they will own the stadium and will assume responsibility, along with MLSE and in equal share, for any operational losses once the stadium is in activity.
In total, the money involved for the building of the stadium, including the $27 million promised by the federal government and the $8 million from the Province of Ontario, is $62.8 million. With the addition of $10 million, which is the value of the land, the total cost is $72.5 million.
This past week all the parties involved have started work in order to have all the legal requirements in place for next week, when the City Council will make the offer official and the request will be presented to the federal government to get the $27 million committed by Ottawa.
The CNE Board approved the deal on Wednesday, while the agreement is in front of the Policy and Finance Committee of the City of Toronto.
Mayor Miller and Deputy Mayor Pantalone have assured the parties involved that they strongly support the deal and they will do whatever is in their capacity to speed up the process and start the building of the stadium as soon as possible. Mr. Pantalone said that "this is a great news for the City of Toronto" and he also acknowledged "the contribution made by Minister Volpe, the federal government, as well as the Province and the City of Toronto."
It looks like the last hurdle is the approval of the City Council next week. But it looks like that it will not be a problem. Some councilors have tried hard to have the stadium built in Downsview but, even though they still believe that the former air base would be the best site for the soccer stadium, it looks like they will support the CNE choice because, at this point, killing this agreement, would kill the building of the stadium altogether. In fact, there is no time to hammer out another proposal and start the construction of the new stadium in time for the Under 20 World Soccer championship that will start in June of 2007. And the $27 million from the federal government is conditional to this commitment.

Publication Date: 2005-10-23
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5669