Lots of questions remain to be answered before an Atlantic franchise goes beyond the talking stage.

Advocates and experts acknowledged Friday that sobering questions remain: Does the East Coast have the fan base to support a Canadian Football League franchise? Is the business community interested in sponsoring a team? And, perhaps most importantly, who will foot the bill for a new Halifax stadium?
"The CFL is going to want to see a stable ownership group with deep pockets, which appears to be the case," said Moshe Lander, a Concordia University professor who specializes in the economics of sports. "The fight is going to be who is going to pay for the stadium."
Stadiums hardly ever yield the economic benefits that are promised, Lander said, noting that it would need a minimum of 30,000 seats, but the "sweet spot" is closer to 40,000. You would ideally like to incorporate sponsorship," he said. "Sobeys would be an ideal anchor sponsor."
Halifax Mayor Mike Savage called a potential CFL team an "exciting opportunity," but said the municipality will not be leading the charge. "A stadium is not a capital priority at this time," he said. "Any proposal would need to be private sector led and make economic sense for the municipality. A football stadium would have to be built "without putting taxpayers at risk," Savage said, and the team would have to be an "Atlantic play" to make economic sense.
"The big issue really is the corporate support," he said. "This is the financial centre of Atlantic Canada and I think the CFL sees that if you want to have a franchise that is going to be successful there has to be deep financial roots and commercial support." ...

The key, according to the deputy chairman of the TD Bank Group, is making the "very marginal" economics work. I'd say there are two or three secrets to success," he said. "You would need very strong community ownership. I'm thinking the models in Saskatchewan and Green Bay, for example. And you would need it to be more than just a football play," McKenna added. "It has to be real estate and retail and other things associated with it in order to increase the revenue from the property."
He pointed to the stadium at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa. It's a model Savage called "attractive" after a 2014 tour of the facility, which includes the 24,000-seat TD Place Stadium. The redesign of the park at the southern edge of the Glebe neighbourhood includes retail space, condominiums, and a children's play structure, which was considered critical to securing the Ottawa Redblacks franchise.
Lander said Halifax, with a major international airport, growing population, major universities and development, is a good location for a team. He said the CFL could use a team in the Atlantic region.
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