New stadium for Hamilton?

Just to clear up the THF capacity question, it's 24,000 (22,500 seats+1500 patio)

Tim Hortons Field August 26/2014
Photos from ticats.ca

 

The women are from Ticat TV and they were on the tour. One of them posted those pics herself on her personal site.

I posted the pictures, not to show them, but to see the stadium from a different view as their has been a dearth of pictures from inside.

One of the pics shows how large the scoreboard is and the construction of the patio progressing beneath it.

 

Ticats first practice at Tim Hortons Field August 27/2014

 

And who would choose the PanAm Games over a senior cap at Copa America?

 

Chances of Monday game at new stadium up to 85 per cent
Drew Edwards Hamilton Spectator August 27/2014

Councillor Lloyd Ferguson has been consistently pessimistic — some might say realistic — when it comes to the timelines surrounding the readiness of the new stadium. But after a two-hour tour of the $150-million facility on Wednesday, Ferguson says he's almost convinced it will be ready in time for the Tiger-Cats game scheduled for Labour Day.



"How far they've gotten has exceeded my expectation. It's moving along well," Ferguson said.

According to Ferguson, the final scoreboard panels were installed Wednesday and tests of the fire alarm system were under way. Washroom facilities are now functioning, temporary concession stands are currently being prepared and workers are cleaning up the concourses to make them ready for fans.

While an official from builder Ontario Sports Solutions said Tuesday there was a "better than 50 per cent" chance the stadium would be ready for Labour Day, Ferguson — and the guys wearing the hard hats — are even more optimistic.

"I talked with the guys on the job and they're a pretty proud bunch and they want to get it done," Ferguson said. "They said 100 per cent but I'm going to say 85 per cent."

Another person expressing optimism — somewhat more predictably — was Ticats chief executive officer Scott Mitchell, who attended Wednesday's practice with the team.

"The latest update is they continue to make progress. Again, it's not a process that we're in control of at all. We get updates like everybody else," Mitchell said. "We've not heard of anything that would be a setback. In fact, all we hear is the checklist continuing to be augmented and improved upon. All we've heard is positive momentum."

The team's contingency plan — to play the game Tuesday at Toronto's Rogers Centre — remains in place. While Mitchell said the team has plenty of time to make a decision, Kelly Keyes, vice-president of building services for the facility, said lead time is required to arrange staff to prepare the field and the stadium.

"I would say we would need to know by the end of the day Thursday," Keyes said.

Ferguson says paperwork from the various trades remains a major hurdle. Architects, engineers and manufacturers involved in the stadium have to certify that their work has been completed in accordance to the design and their specifications in order for the city to issue the occupancy permit.

"From what I've seen, I'm pretty confident the work will be done," Ferguson said. "The question is whether the documents will be in."

Still, Ferguson is as optimistic as he's been that the iconic Labour Day game will finally return to Hamilton.

"I was pleasantly surprised by how much progress they've made," he said.

 

Well, I guess there is nothing to worry about then, is there?

 

The latest on the stadium and a little on the football team too
Drew Edwards The Scratching Post August 29/2014

Ticats' CEO Scott Mitchell seems increasingly confident that Tim Hortons Field will be ready for the Labour Day Classic as scheduled.

“Something would have to drastically wrong for us not to be in there for Monday for kickoff,” Mitchell told TSN radio on Friday morning.

There is, Mitchell acknowledged, plenty of work left to be done at the $145 million facility. City officials said Thursday that the soonest they expect to be in a position to issue an occupancy permit for the stadium is Sunday afternoon — hours before the scheduled start of the game against the Argos, set for 1 p.m. Monday.



Ed VanderWindt, Hamilton's director of building, says a number of tests and inspections still have to take place before the city can sign off, but there's more work to be done before that can happen.

"If all goes according to what I've been told, we'll be ready on Sunday afternoon, but it's up the contractor to finish the work first," VanderWindt said Thursday. "For us to sign off on the project, we need a number of major components completed."

Inspectors tested the fire alarms, sprinkler heads and generators on Thursday, but the installation of guard rails still need to take place. They were slated to be delivered on Friday and installed on Saturday and Sunday.

We don't schedule the games and we don't figure out when the guard rails are done.

"Until they are done, that's going to be the holdup," VanderWindt said.

Paperwork from the various trades also remains a major hurdle, VanderWindt said. Architects, engineers and manufacturers involved in the stadium have to certify their work has been completed in accordance with the design and their specifications in order for the city to issue the occupancy permit.

Mitchell says the team's operational hurdles — meeting the needs of the teams, CFL officials, broadcasters and providing game day staff — have now been cleared.

The Ticats have outlined the three scenarios for the iconic East Division matchup: play the game as scheduled at Tim Hortons Field; move the game to the following night at the new stadium or, if it still isn't ready, play the game Tuesday evening at the Rogers Centre.

A senior official at the Rogers Centre says he could wait as long as Sunday before getting definitive word if the game between the Argonauts and Tiger-Cats needs to be played in Toronto on Sept. 2.

That’s a little later than the Thursday evening timeline put forth by stadium officials earlier in the week.

“We could theoretically wait until the ninth inning of the game against the Yankees on Sunday. It’s not ideal, but it’s doable. We’d like as much time as we can, but we’re trying to be as flexible as possible, given the situation,” Stephen Brooks, senior vice-president of business operations for the Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre, told the Toronto Star.

If the game is held in Toronto, Labour Day ticketholders will receive a credit toward a future game or a full refund, as well as complimentary tickets to the contest at Rogers Centre.

An official from builder Ontario Sports Solutions said Tuesday there was a "better than 50 per cent" chance the stadium would be ready for Labour Day, while Councillor Lloyd Ferguson pegged the number at 85 per cent on Wednesday.

VanderWindt, however, wasn't willing to set new odds.

"We don't schedule the games and we don't figure out when the guard rails are done," he said. "Once the work is done, we'll issue the permit."

The 24,500-seat stadium was originally slated to be complete by June 30, then in time for the team's home opener July 24. The contractor now expects to turn over a mostly completed facility to the city Oct. 2, but finishing touches could take another month or two.

- with files from Josh Rubin at the Toronto Star.

 

Ticats getting comfy in their new home
Steve Milton The Scratching Post August 29/2014

Second day in and the players no longer seem to be obviously in awe, but their attitude is not one of a team that has managed just a single victory in two months.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were almost giddy at Tim Hortons Field Thursday and that can't only be attributed to a 10-day break in the schedule and the return from long-term injury by Zach Collaros, the team's starting quarterback.



There was excess energy during the Cats' second consecutive workout at the Doughnut Box — some of it leading to a spirited fight between a defensive lineman and a series of five offensive linemen — and that's because they can see and feel the future, even if they're not sure that future is now.

Whenever they get in for a real game, the team now has a new practice home and the overwhelming ambience of Tim Hortons Field is taking root. The players aren't chewing on the creature comforts they'll eventually have, because they haven't really seen them yet, but they're already pumped about the stadium assets that will benefit them competitively.

"The stadium looks great," said quarterback Zach Collaros. "It's a fast surface, which is good for us. We're all very excited."

The turf is as smooth as the Bonneville Salt Flats and provides excellent traction despite being soft and easy on the feet. And, veteran Ivor Wynners will notice, there is not the slightest hint of a drainage hump running the length of the field. That creates a sense of greater vastness, as just about every facet of this new building does.

International regulations for the 2015 Pan Am Games soccer tournament have resulted in the walls, which rise 2.6 metres from the field area before the grandstand seating begins, being noticeably farther from the sidelines than at Ivor Wynne. But, quite surprisingly, it is not at the cost of intimacy. The pitch of the stands and the mere height of them, especially on the towering west side, create a cosy, closed-in feeling. And that's without any fans in the seats.

"It doesn't feel like just two open sides," says Ticats coach and general manager Kent Austin. "The south side has that wall and the patio behind it. And on the north side, the two corners are open but then you've got this two-tiered deck under this huge Jumbotron. So in both end zones, there are going to be fans standing above us … the field almost feels sunken."

This makes it even more of a centre of visual attention and, therefore, more intimate. Not Ivor Wynne intimate, but a different kind of intimate, which will have its own impact. You would not, for instance, want to be the first Argonaut who catches a touchdown pass deep in the south end zone, which ends perilously close to the patio wall. There will not be a friendly reception from just two metres above.

One thing longtime Ticats ticket subscribers will notice that might escape players and media is the seating. First of all, it's all seats. There's not a wooden bench in sight. And the chairs are staggered, so that no head is directly in front of the one in the row ahead or behind.

The dominant hue of the stands will initially irk many fans because, other than a narrow band of gold-ish seats running the length of the top of each section, there is no real hint of the primary tenant's iconic colour scheme. Every chair outside of the yellow archipelago is a muted greyish brown.

It's a monochromatic sea but it looks and feels classy, in a gentrified kind of way. It offers no distractions from the stadium's primary visual appeals: the playing field; the scoreboard; the escarpment and the ads, which run the length of the field. Those ads are colour-co-ordinated to match the stadium motif, a new development in Canadian arena advertising.

While the players feel comfortable in all this and have already adjusted just as easily to imminent comfort as they did to the deprivations of Guelph and Mac, they're about to be wowed again on the weekend when they see their locker-room for the first time, Austin predicts.

"It's unbelievable and that's not hyperbole at all," he says. "You have the therapy area connected to the locker-room, connected to the weight room, right across from the players' lounge. The room, the quality, all the detail, the way it's laid out, the convenience for the players. They'll love it."

Clearly, they already do.

 

Courtesy ticats.ca (last week of August/2014)