New stadium for Ottawa?

Ottawa to spend $1.2M to tear down notorious football stands

Ottawa to spend $1.2M to tear down notorious football stands
Thursday, October 11, 2007
CBC News

http://origin.www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/10/11/stadium-doomed.html

The City of Ottawa will tear down the lower-south-side stands at Frank Clair Stadium, long known as the stadium's rowdiest cheering section when the city had a football team.

City council voted unanimously Wednesday to remove the stands at a cost of $1.2 million because cracks were found in the concrete late in September.

Council decided to use temporary stands, if needed, until long-term plans for the stadium are settled.

An engineer's report had concluded that fixing the damaged stands would cost about $5 million.

The report said the stands were a "high risk" for public occupancy due to deterioration and "distress" in the concrete.

The manager in charge of city-owned buildings, Barry Robinson, later confirmed that the type of structural fractures reported in the document pose a real risk to the public.

The stadium could have collapsed without warning, he said.

The stands were closed temporarily as a precaution on Sept. 5 while the city awaited the more detailed report. This came after cracks were found in the concrete during a routine inspection.

For many years, the stadium was known simply as Lansdowne Park, after the fairgrounds where it was located. It was renamed in 1993 to honour Frank Clair, coach and general manager for the Ottawa Rough Riders during the 1960s and 1970s.

The north-side stadium is covered and seats about 15,000 people. The south side is not covered, and it was the lower south side, which seats about 6,400 people, that became notorious for rowdiness during when the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Renegades football teams were in the CFL.

There is a serious move afoot to bring a Canadian Football League team back to Ottawa.

Ottawa's mayor said two weeks ago he has been in close talks with a group of investors.

"It's a group of very high-quality, very, as they say, deep-pocketed Ottawa business people who have a reputation for being very astute," Larry O'Brien told reporters.

"I've talked to them. I've talked to the CFL," he said.

He added that those business interests have asked that their names not be released yet.

 

Frank Clair Stadium plans would see southside get swanky

Frank Clair Stadium plans would see southside get swanky
Luxury suites, restaurants, clubs eyed for stands

Don Campbell
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, September 29, 2007
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=8cc5facd-d555-4314-a951-12c535133a2b&k=96385


An aerial view of Frank Clair Stadium, at Lansdowne Park on Bank Street in Ottawa, which may soon be getting luxury suites, restaurants, clubs for its stands. Taken Aug. 14, 2007 during the summer carnival, Super Ex. CREDIT: Mike Carroccetto, The Ottawa Citizen

Frank Clair Stadium's southside fans may not suck much longer.

The taunting chant that northsiders love to hurl at their supposedly bluer-collar brethren to the south will be a thing of the past if the developers promoting a CFL return to Ottawa have their way.

The people behind the proposal to refurbish the stadium along with a redesigned Lansdowne Park want to make the southside the place to be at events, with luxury suites, restaurants and clubs with views of the field and the canal to the rear.

Although the developers and the architectural firm have yet to sit down for serious talks about the revamped stadium, the initial plan would see the lower and upper tiers demolished. The city has already deemed the lower tier unsafe. Six recommendations, including demolition, have been proposed.

Partner-in-charge Brian Brisbin of Brisbin Brook Beynon, Architects (BBB), makes known his views of what spectators expect, whether they are visiting a stadium or a restaurant and club.

"A basketball game in Chicago coupled with a visit to Planet Hollywood is a completely different experience from a day spent attending a soccer game in Istanbul," writes Mr. Brisbin, who leads the firm's Toronto head office with brother Richard overseeing Ottawa operations. "There's an entirely different level of energy, and entirely different ways of dealing with it. But there is a common bond between the two disparate experiences. All of the visitors arrive expecting to be entertained." The company's portfolio includes Toronto's Air Canada Centre, the John Labatt Centre in London, the New Varsity Stadium and Arena at the University of Toronto, a world-class soccer stadium in Turkey, and, of a non-sporting endeavour, the Neurological Research Institute at the University of Ottawa.

The high-powered group of Roger Greenberg, William Shenkman and John Ruddy, along with pointman and Ottawa 67's owner Jeff Hunt, are scheduled to meet with the BBB architects next Thursday to go over preliminary stadium concepts.

Mr. Hunt stressed what they have come up with to encompass the picturesque setting along the Rideau Canal is only an idea at this point.

"My developer partners are very connected to the architectural community," Mr. Hunt said yesterday.

"We're going to sit down and look at possible stadium concepts and see where we go from there." Elsewhere, the Ottawa bid preparation is going full speed toward a presentation to city council sometime in 2008.

Mr. Hunt is focused on the football end, and there's no shortage of leg work to be done before he goes in front of the league board of governors for Step 1 in the mammoth project.

In fact, there's so much work that now is not the time to ask what the team will be called. The thought of even approaching former owner Horn Chen about re-acquiring the name Rough Riders is way down on the to-do list.

"In the near future, I would not expect a whole lot to happen," said Mr. Hunt, who added his group only met face-to-face with CFL commissioner Mark Cohon early last week.

The group was given a guideline to go about assembling the franchise bid, at which point Mr. Cohon will either approve or disapprove before calling in the league's board of governors to look at it.

At that point -- and there is not yet a board of governors meeting scheduled to deal with the Ottawa situation -- a conditional franchise could be awarded, shifting the bid process to City Hall.

"With everything that has to happen on the political side, we are trying to move as quickly as possible," Mr. Hunt said. "The sooner we can get in front of city council, the better." Mr. Hunt said he will draw on acquaintances within the CFL to assist in preparing the bid, and the franchise's budget and business plan.

Then what he wants to hear is how the CFL is going to stockpile the roster.

Mr. Hunt does not want to be stuck with a long building curve to respectability on the field. He doesn't necessarily expect an on-field winner. But he expects instant respectability.

"I really believe the expansion draft has to give us a quality product in the first year," Mr. Hunt said. "And I really believe the league gets it this time.

"I would like to see the league situation resolved by Christmas. We don't totally control that; but in three months, we would like to have it done."

 

Plan not just football

Plan not just football
Ottawa group envisions 'urban oasis'
By SHANE ROSS -- Sun Media

The group trying to bring CFL football back to Ottawa by 2010 will make its proposal to city staff for a redeveloped Lansdowne Park in mid-September.

"We're putting a full-court press together," said front-man Jeff Hunt. "There has been a misconception that our proposal is only about CFL football, but it is much broader than that."

Hunt was referring to a poll published this week that suggested 48% of Ottawans don't want the stadium maintained for a new CFL franchise. The poll also suggested that 69% of respondents preferred an "urban oasis to showcase the waterway, farmers markets and community events," and 46% liking the idea of a creating a centre for arts and entertainment.

Hunt said simply maintaining Frank Clair Stadium for football was never part of his proposal, and given the choice, who wouldn't want an "urban oasis?"

"Our proposal combines elements of all the choices," he said. "Fixing up Frank Clair Stadium is not limited to football any more than Scotiabank Place has been limited to Senators hockey."

Hunt would not get into specific details about the proposal until he delivers it to city staff, but his vision is that Lansdowne Park becomes a venue that would appeal to sports fans and non-sports fans, and not just during a sporting event, but any time during the week.

"It has to be a must-visit attraction when you come to Ottawa -- the Parliament buildings, the canal and Lansdowne Park. The kind of place where you bring friends from out of town to see."

That is sure to include retail shops, restaurants, bars and a venue for arts and entertainment. And rest assured, Hunt said, the farmers markets and community events would not be affected by his proposal.

"I think the Glebe will love it, it will enhance living in the Glebe," said Hunt, who also owns the 67's junior hockey team.

The CFL in Ottawa dates back to Confederation with the Rough Riders. The team folded in 1997 and returned as the Renegades in 2002. After four seasons of financial losses, the Renegades were suspended before the 2006 season. Last spring, the CFL awarded the Ottawa franchise to Hunt and his group, providing they redevelop Frank Clair Stadium.

"Our group got together to figure out what would make CFL football successful in Ottawa like it is in so many other markets," Hunt said. "What has evolved is it became a solution for Lansdowne Park.

"If there are 10 reasons why football hasn't worked, seven or eight of them have to do with the facility. Today, people have an expectation of what a pro sports experience should be like and that's not the case at Frank Clair Stadium."

He compared it to other business models.

"If you were trying to have a restaurant in Ottawa and had a dilapidated interior, rickety chairs and just a scuzzy environment, even if you had five-star food, it probably wouldn't succeed."

Hunt said the Senators have "raised the bar for what a pro sports experience should be," and he wants football fans to have that same feeling.

His meeting next month with city staff will give him an indication of how close he is to making that happen.

 

Ottawa to announce MLS expansion bid
Ontario's capital city set to announce plans to build world-class soccer stadium
By Dylan Butler / MLSnet.com Staff

With the tremendous success of Toronto FC on the other side of the province as a case study, Ontario's capital city of Ottawa is looking to get into Major League Soccer and has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning to announce an expansion bid and plans on building a world-class soccer stadium.

Eugene Melnyk, owner of Senators Sports & Entertainment, is the driving force behind the possible deal and could be the fifth National Hockey League-based investor-operator of an MLS team and second in Canada, joining Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, the NBA Toronto Raptors and Toronto FC. Colorado Rapids operator Stanley Kroenke owns the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets of the NBA among other teams, while AEG, investor-operator of the LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo, own the Los Angeles Kings, and Dave Checketts and Sports Capital Partners, operator of Real Salt Lake, own the St. Louis Blues.

Ottawa is the latest Canadian city interested in possibly adding a Major League Soccer team. Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash joined Vancouver Whitecaps ownership in a bid to land an MLS expansion team in his hometown of Vancouver and Montreal, which is already home to a brand new 14,000-seat soccer stadium (Stade Saputo) is also in contention for an MLS expansion team.

Major League Soccer will expand to 15 teams next year with the addition of the Seattle Sounders and will then add a team in Philadelphia in 2010. Other possible expansion destinations include a second team in New York, St. Louis, Miami, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Portland.

According to published reports, the New York Mets are looking to be the ownership group of a second New York club. David Howard, the executive vice president for business said the Mets are hoping to get into MLS expansion following the completion of construction for their new $600 million home, Citi Field.

"Our vision is not to be just a successful baseball team, but to be a world-class sports and media entertainment company," Howard told Bloomberg Radio's "On the Ball" program, which will air Saturday. "We're a lot closer to that goal than we were five years ago."

 

Soccer pitch in Ottawa
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
THE CANADIAN PRESS



OTTAWA -- Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk recalled his childhood Tuesday, one in which he spent hours alongside his grandfather in Toronto's Stanley Park, watching the Toronto Ukrainians compete in the old National Soccer League.

The 49-year-old businessman cited those fond memories as part of the inspiration behind his drive to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Ottawa in time for the 2011 season.

"Hockey may be Canada's game, but soccer is the world's game," Melnyk said after his group, Senators Sports & Entertainment, unveiled plans for a new soccer-specific stadium that would seat up to 30,000 supporters and is the backbone of Ottawa's bid for an expansion team.

"We want to bring the world's game to Ottawa," he said at a news conference at Scotiabank Place, home of the NHL's Senators. "It's a strong, exciting brand of soccer and we want to be part of it."

With the 14-team league already set to expand by two (Seattle Sounders FC will begin play in 2009 and an unnamed Philadelphia franchise in 2010), it intends to add two more teams the following year.

At the MLS all-star game in Toronto in July, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that Ottawa was among the cities in the running, along with Montreal, Vancouver, Atlanta, St. Louis, Portland, Ore., Las Vegas and New York.

The deadline for bidding is Oct. 15, with a decision on the awarding of the franchises not expected until late this year or early in 2009. The winning bids will pay a US$40-million expansion fee. That's up from the $10-million fee Toronto FC paid in 2006 and $30 million spent by Seattle and Philadelphia last year.

Ottawa would have to be considered a long shot. Vancouver, which has interest from two separate groups, and Montreal already have shown they could support a team with the success of the Whitecaps and Impact, respectively, in the First Division of the United Soccer Leagues.

Meanwhile, the U.S. groups have some big financial backing, including Major League Baseball's New York Mets, who are behind the pursuit of a second MLS franchise in the New York area.

"Nothing's going to be simple. We're not kidding ourselves," said Senators Sports & Entertainment chief operating officer Cyril Leeder, who was part of the original group that landed the NHL in Ottawa after skeptics similarly said it had little chance for a team. "It's going to take a lot of work."

But the project holds special meaning to Melnyk. His grandfather was president of the National Soccer League, and he introduced Melnyk's father to his mother through links from that Toronto Ukrainians club.

Melnyk thinks the success of the Senators since he purchased the team and its arena in 2003 after it had filed for bankruptcy protection will be a strong selling point. Although Ottawa suffered through a disappointing season on the ice last year, it remained one of the NHL's stronger teams in terms of attendance and regularly sold out its 19,153-seat building.

"If you look at what they tried to do 20 years ago, people were laughing at it," said Melnyk, the former chief executive of Canadian pharmaceutical giant Biovail Corp. "Look where we are today, one of the most successful hockey franchises in the NHL. There's no question we can do that with soccer here in Ottawa.

"What we bring to the table is everything that the MLS is looking for, and that's the fact that we own a major sports franchise, a very successful one. Everybody looks at these things and they say, `These people have a great organization.'

"Are you really pitching them whether you can get 20,000 people out to a game? I think that's going to be a pretty easy sell. I think that's a gimme, and we'll do a pretty good job of selling that."

.Melnyk also said he spoke with the Saputo family, which owns the Impact and Monteal's Saputo Stadium, at the MLS all-star game and sees the chance for the MLS to create natural rivalry by awarding teams to both cities.

A name for Ottawa's team, its logo and colours would be determined only after a successful bid.

Key to the process is the building of the new stadium, required by MLS in order to pursue a bid. The plan is to build a natural turf, horseshoe-shaped facility at an expected cost in the range of $100 million.

It will be located in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, across the street and just down the road from Scotiabank Place. The site is currently an empty, 15-hectare field that's used as a snow dump by the city during the winter months.

It would also be used to play host to any future FIFA events, such as in Canada's bid for the 2015 Women's World Cup, Leeder said.

Plans to build it are contingent on being awarded the franchise, however.

"No stadium, no MLS franchise," Melnyk said. "The two are tied together. We need a franchise for the stadium to be viable and vice versa."

The stadium plan isn't without numerous stumbling blocks.

The land is currently owned by the city and so far there's been no commitment from the city to any bid.

In addition to corporate sponsorship, naming rights, and his group's own money, some input from the government would likely be necessary to pay for the stadium.

None of the area's politicians attended the news conference and, given the fact that elections are coming before the bidding deadline, securing any political backing could prove tricky.

Matters may be further complicated with a separate group attempting to bring the CFL back to Ottawa -- a process that's stalled while debate goes on over the future of Frank Clair Stadium in the city's downtown area.

Leeder said the idea of the stadium doubling to house a CFL team is also being considered, although that seems to run counter to the selling of the stadium as sport-specific.

In the meantime, a website has been set up at www.BringtheWorldtoOttawa.ca, where fans can register their support for the bid. Melnyk thinks Ottawa's fan base, coupled with his familiarity with some of the owners of current MLS teams, including Toronto FC's parent Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment group, will work in the bid's favour.

"These are very smart people (on the MLS board), many of them own hockey franchises, they know what we've done here in Ottawa, they know what our attendance levels are," Melnyk said. "Word gets around, who are the success stories and who aren't."

 

$100M vision
Sens owner wants to build soccer stadium near Scotiabank Place
Richard Starnes, The Ottawa Citizen September 16, 2008

OTTAWA - When you hear "a whole lot of screaming going on" and you are as inquisitive as Eugene Melnyk, you ask questions.
It happened one Saturday last year as the Ottawa Senators owner was driving past BMO Field in downtown Toronto.
"What's that?" he asked his driver.
"That's a Toronto FC game," came the reply.
"How are they doing? Is this for real?"
"Sell out every game."
Fast forward to tuesday morning at Ottawa's Scotiabank Place and you find the same Eugene Melnyk telling a packed news conference that next month he will bid for a 2011 Major League Soccer franchise and would put it in a spanking new $100-million, 30,000-seat soccer-specific stadium.

What's more, the stadium, earmarked for land southeast of Scotiabank Place that the city presently operates as a snow dump, could house another Ottawa franchise - the Canadian Football League.

The question of what to do with Lansdowne Park, whether or not to restore the site or rebuild to allow for a new CFL team, has been on the city's mind for some time. The Senators' chief operating officer, Cyril Leeder, believes he has a good option.

"If this wasn't going on, the city would be going through the same process as us," said Leeder. "They would be discussing, 'How and where do we build a new stadium?' We think we have a way we can help.'"

Late Tuesday, there was encouraging news for Leeder, who had earlier admitted the city site was the only place being considered for the stadium.

Mayor Larry O'Brien said he would certainly not stand in the way.
"Ultimately, this would be a council decision, but I feel very comfortable taking to council a proposal which would end up with the land being our contribution to the new stadium," he said.

"There are 60,000 registered players in Ottawa and Gatineau. That's a pretty good base. There are a lot of soccer moms and dads out there."

One absolute MLS requirement for a new franchise is a soccer-specific venue, and Matt Rossetti, the architect for the new stadium, is well aware of the need to respect that.

"The soccer-specific requirement is our No. 1 goal," he said. "But it's technically feasible to have a soccer-specific stadium and still have it work very well for the CFL."

The stadium Rossetti's team is designing would have seating on three sides, close to the action. One end of the stadium would be built as a stage for multi-purpose outdoor entertainment.

"We can either remove that stage completely or make it retractable," said Rossetti. "It certainly could be rolled back to make room for football end zones and then rolled back for soccer."

There is even a solution to the difficulty of a mass of lines all over the field to accommodate both sports. Leeder was in Dallas recently, where soccer and NFL franchises share a field.

"It's crazy, but the hardest part is dealing with the lines," said Leeder. "We went out on the field in Dallas and they showed us this very new paint that washes off. You water it and it washes away."

To meet MLS requirements, the natural grass stadium must seat at least 20,000. Melnyk, mindful of the prospect of any upcoming bid for this country to stage a future Women's World Cup, is planning for 30,000 because that is the minimum requirement of FIFA, the world soccer body that runs world tournaments.

The plan also calls for five fields adjacent to the stadium to complete a soccer complex that could be used by the community and for pro team practice.

To fund the $140-million project - $100 million for the stadium and a $40-million franchise fee - Melnyk will be actively seeking financial support from federal and provincial governments, he will be talking to corporations for investment and he is already in preliminary discussions with the city about the land.

An upbeat Melnyk suggested it was novel timing to announce the bid and the stadium plan with the Senators' National Hockey League team beginnining training camp the next day.

However, while hockey is Canada's game, soccer is the world's game, he said, and he wants to bring the world game to the national capital.

"Two hundred and four countries competed in the World Cup," he said. "I can't even name 204 countries."
He pointed out that Ottawa is a G8 country and that every other G8 country has a world- class stadium in its capital.
"We don't have a properly functioning stadium and we deserve one," he said.
Before a shovel goes into the ground, the Melnyk group must win the franchise. Currently, there are 14 MLS teams, including Toronto FC, which sells out its 20,000-seat soccer-specific BMO Field every time it plays. Seattle will be added next season and Philadelphia in 2010.

MLS has announced it will be increasing its number by two in 2011. Besides Ottawa, there are eight other cities in the running for those spots, including Montreal and Vancouver, both of whom already have teams in the United States League, the pro league one step down from MLS.

Time is short.
Franchise bids must be in by Oct. 15 and Ottawa has come to the game late. Leeder was not phased by the timeline, pointing out the organization had been working on a bid for months.

Linking an existing sports franchise with a soccer franchise is not unusual. in Toronto, the NHL's Maple Leafs, the National Basketball Association's Raptors and the FC are under one umbrella, and the same organization owns the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, soccer's L.A. Galaxy, and co-owns the Houston Dynamo, also of the MLS. The same goes for the NHL's Avalanche and soccer's Rapids in Colorado.

After Tuesday's news conference, Melnyk said that even if he did not win a 2011 franchise, he would not give up.
"We bid for the junior hockey world championships three times before we got it at the fourth attempt," he said. "This is going to happen. We will go on until we get a franchise. It will happen."