Who Profits From Lansdowne? GRAY

For whom is Lansdowne being built?

Certainly not for the Charge of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. The Charge says the new arena, at a moving target of capacity of around 5,500, is not big enough. The league office says the same.

Women’s sports are skyrocketing in popularity. Even locally. Go to a Carleton Ravens basketball game and quite often the stands have more fans for the women’s game than the men’s game that follows it in the evening. The great growth in sports is not new teams nor new leagues nor new games but women’s sports. How could the tall foreheads behind Lansdowne miss that? Did they talk to anyone familiar with local sports? Or the PWHL? Forgetting women’s sports is a big miss.

Is Lansdowne being built for Redblacks fans?

The New Battling Mark Sutcliffe: POTTER

Yes it is. But how will the patrons like sitting in the rain in October with no roof like the old north stands have at present. Not fun that cold rain.

Furthermore, how viable is the Canadian Football League in the long run? Predictably, Redblacks football attendance has been declining as it did with the Rough Riders (in their various incarnations) and the Renegades. After all the failures of franchises here, can we say the Redblacks are a slam-dunk long-term success? Probably not.

So taxpayers are laying out a half-billion dollars for a football team that is worth about a million dollars if the proprietors could find a buyer, a fledgling soccer team and the long-term successful hockey 67s.

The CFL is perpetually in ownership struggles with attendance stable (strangely except in the former great market of Edmonton and Ottawa) but plagued with old demographics. Will the CFL out-live the new stadium? Probably not. The kids watch the NFL and adults are spoiled by the major league hockey Senators.

Is Lansdowne being built for the mobility-challenged? Well yes it is but to serve that segment’s needs, it can be done for less than $500 million through renovations.

Renovations … an interesting concept. The Toronto Blue Jays, playing to full houses in a 44,000-person venue, looked for a location for a new stadium and, after getting the massive estimates, decided to renovate. And that, along with the team, has been an overwhelming success. Why not do repairs for Lansdowne for much less money than building anew?

So is the new Lansdowne being built for the fans? Ask the people when the rains come at the stadium or the people who want the PWHL to succeed. They’re likely to say no.

Is it being built for taxpayers? No. This money sinkhole will cost at the conclusion of building probably about a billion dollars. So where is the tricklefall of money from operations over 11 years? Nowhere. If you can’t successfully make money for more than a decade, does that not portend the future?

Is Lansdowne being built for the City of Ottawa? No. Where’s the revenue?

Is Lansdowne being built for shoppers? No. They go to malls where there is free parking to shop or to big-box stores or, most likely, online. Lansdowne is a retail old idea in a really bad location. Not sure? Ask the drivers in traffic jams on Bank Street or the passengers on a gridlocked bus.

As the real-estate people behind the project will tell you, location for a project is everything and Lansdowne is one lousy location. Bad parking, poor car access and no mass transit in an out-of-date shopping mall.

You can try to fix parts of Lansdowne but it’s difficult to move it to a new location.

‘Good Morning, Ottawa’

Who is it being constructed for? Well, real-estate developers. Simply, those towers at Lansdowne will make money on some very expensive land.

So for whom is Lansdowne being built?

Let’s see. It’s not the fans nor the PWHL nor taxpayers nor the City of Ottawa nor shoppers.

Let’s see who’s left.

Ah yes, that’s who benefits from Lansdowne. Want to spend a half-billion dollars on them?

Ken Gray

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