Here’s what you need to know about the legal hubbub over the Wanderers Grounds and Halifax Common

Last week, members of the Friends of Halifax Common local advocacy group declared that they are ready to sue the HRM over the alleged privatization of the publicly-owned Wanderers Grounds, where Canadian Premier League soccer club HFX Wanderers FC plays its home games.

The reason, according to lawyer Ronald Pink’s cease-and-desist letter to Halifax mayor Mike Savage, is the FOTC’s members believe the Wanderers Grounds have become a de facto private property without public consultation—and that, they argue, goes against rules dating as back as far as the Crown grants from the 1700s.

The crux of the FOTC’s argument is that the Grounds are supposed to be public. Since the 1700s, the grassy plot of land between Bell Road,  Sackville Street and Summer Street has been publicly-owned, and the commitment to keep the Wanderers Grounds public was codified in law as recently as the 1990s.

HFX Wanderers FC’s ownership hasn’t disputed that. In interviews, club president Derek Martin has reiterated that his soccer club is merely a tenant on the property, and—despite, or in keeping with his desire to see the HRM build a permanent stadium on the Grounds—he maintains his group’s aim is to… well, maintain the Grounds’ historic use.

“If you look back at pictures from the 19th century, this was a stadium,” he told CTV News in May 2022.

But the FOTC argue that while the land remains public in name, there are too many restrictions limiting who can actually use the land. While the Wanderers Grounds are still listed as a rentable sports field on the HRM’s Parks & Recreation website (available to adults for $17.70 per hour, and youth for $8.84 per hour), the FOTC claims that the Wanderers’ frequent use of the field has effectively privatized it, with the soccer club as the sole beneficiary.

“Prior to leasing the space to SEA [Sports Entertainment Atlantic, which owns HFX Wanderers FC], the Wanderers Grounds was used to full capacity by the public. Amateur players booked the space for an average of 325 hours per year,” Pink writes in his letter to Savage.

Pink adds that the HRM’s extension of its lease to SEA and HFX Wanderers FC was done without public consultation. He argues that the Charter requires that the HRM lease the Wanderers Grounds at market value, and that a long-term or permanent lease to the Wanderers—or any private entity—would be “inconsistent with the HRM Charter.”

In this crossover episode of The Wanderer Grounds/The Grand Parade, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman take a deep dive into the weeds and imagine a future where the Wanderers Grounds plays an integral role in forming community, all the while being a public good in the beating heart of a wonderful city.

Also, the two discuss the 1-0 weekend loss to Cavalry FC.