Who pays for a $40-million stadium in Halifax? It’s complicated
HALIFAX, N.S. — Stadium talk reignited in Halifax this week as the Halifax Wanderers pitched a $40 million, 8,500-seat stadium on the Wanderers Grounds.
Derek Martin, HFX Wanderers founder and president, said forget the CFL, this is the right stadium for Halifax right now.
“As difficult as that is for people to get their heads around, there’s a reason why this thing (a CFL stadium) never works out with a 20,000-25,000 seat stadium, the economics just don’t make sense,” Martin told reporters outside council chambers after his presentation to the Community Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee on Thursday.
But Halifax can and does support the Mooseheads, Thunderbirds and Wanderers with crowds of 6,000-8,000, he said.
But who would pay for it?
“We’re not looking for anything. We’re not taking money from anyone to build something, this is not ours,” he said. “It is on public land. What we’ve come forward with is a plan that says it’s time for the city to build a stadium that can be used by everyone in the community — what we’re willing to do is help do that.”
30-year lease
It would be public infrastructure on public land and the Wanderers would sign a long-term lease. And it would be supported by other groups or special events like concerts, rugby games and high school football, Martin said. It would be perfect for Touchdown Atlantic to test out the viability of the CFL in Halifax just like the Wanderers did, he said.
“We’re willing to help be a funding partner. We’re not asking for money, we’re offering money to help get this thing finally built here in Halifax.”
A 30-year lease with the Wanderers would go a long way to paying it off, explained Coun. Waye Mason (Halifax South Downtown).
City staff will come back to the committee with a proposed motion which will start the process of getting a specific report on the stadium, finding out the costs, getting public consultation, determining how leases could be put in place and options for managing it.
“That’s what the staff report is for: how much money do we need from the public purse and what does that look like and could it all just go on debt and get paid back through sponsorships, naming rights, from both Wanderers and other events over time? But that’s what we need to analyze and I don’t have those numbers today.”
And while normally Mason said he wouldn’t be supportive of public money funding a stadium, they already have a commitment to install an artificial turf field somewhere on the Common, which has been considered for the field across from Citadel High School for some time. Mason said the issue is artificial turfs need to be fenced, and since they don’t want to fence off anymore of the Common, this project works.
There’s also a chance the province might help out as the field would also be used by Citadel High School.
“There’s hope that they might be there, too, but that’s still taxpayer money, though, and that’s money that would go toward housing, so that’s a conversation that needs to be had,” Mason said
Martin is hoping to get the project into the 2024-2025 municipal budget which will be finalized in April. The timeline he presented to the committee has an opening date of May 2025.
He said their current rental agreement with the city allows them to play until the end of the 2024 season so they’re looking at what they’ll be doing in 2025 and beyond. They pay around $2,800 a game to HRM to rent the field, he said, which is 10 times what other community organizations pay.
Legal action
If HRM wants to go down this road, they better get ready to defend it in court, according to Howard Epstein, director of the Friends of the Halifax Common.
He voiced his opposition to the project during the public participation section of the meeting and later told reporters they are willing to go through with legal action their lawyer promised in June with a letter to the mayor.
“We’re going to take this issue to court. This is where it’s going to end up for sure,” Epstein said.
