Group makes ‘very credible’ pitch for Halifax CFL franchise

[jerrym]

Anthony LeBlanc of the Maritime Football Partnership says the naming contest is a 'horse race' between Atlantic Schooners and Atlantic Storm. Many think it will be Atlantic Schooners when it is announced on Friday at the Grey Cup festivities.

[CFLfan]

Anthony LeBlanc of the Maritime Football Partnership says the naming contest is a 'horse race' between Atlantic Schooners and Atlantic Storm. Many think it will be Atlantic Schooners when it is announced on Friday at the Grey Cup festivities.

I think Schooners is kind of lame, it's just not an exciting name. They need to have a name that appeals to the younger crowd.
Storm is okay but I think it should be a name that is linked to the Naval history of Halifax and Nova Scotia.

[jerrym]

On Friday the proposed Halifax franchise got its name at the Grey Cup festivities: it's the Atlantic Schooners.

[matthew]

I think Schooners is kind of lame, it's just not an exciting name. They need to have a name that appeals to the younger crowd.
Storm is okay but I think it should be a name that is linked to the Naval history of Halifax and Nova Scotia.

I agree I think schooners will sound Old fashioned in short order. Convoy was a better choice or privateers if the latter wasn’t already spoken for. Glad they passed on storm and admirals.

[matthew]

Anyone else having issues accessing the maritimefootball.ca site for the Schooners? Never seems to load anymore.

[AngeloV]

Anyone else having issues accessing the maritimefootball.ca site for the Schooners? Never seems to load anymore.

Just tried it and got in with no issues.

[CFLfan]

Unless the investors can fund the stadium, it looks like it's dead.

https://twitter.com/CTVAtlantic/stat...99067210006528

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/halifax-...osts-1.4195292

[jerrym]

The Schooners have sold 6,000 season tickets so far, but without taxpayer financing, as noted above, the chances of the team going ahead are looking increasingly dismal.

[ArgoRavi]

The multi-million dollar question all along is who will fund this stadium and that remains. That is also why I have remained skeptical through this entire process.

[jerrym]

The following detailed article describes the "slow progress" in the development of a Halifax CFL franchise. There are lot of questions. However, internationally known singer-songwriter Tom Cochrane now appears interested in investing in the team.

https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...alifax-265775/

[jerrym]

Halifax Schooners founding partner Anthony LeBlanc announced his group will soon present a business analysis to the Halifax Regional Municipality and produce drawings for a proposed stadium in the Halifax region by mid-January.

[jerrym]

Talks between Eric Tillman and Atlantic Schooners have been substantial and at this point it would be surprising if he is not hired as their top football executive.#CFL #Atlanticschooners

— David William Naylor (@TSNDaveNaylor) January 2, 2019

Eric Tillman has start-up experience from Ottawa Renegades (2002). It’s believed his contract with @Ticats recently expired. #CFL #Ticats

— David William Naylor (@TSNDaveNaylor) January 2, 2019

[OV Argo]

Wowzers !!! Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest; and what with all the success Tillspin had in leading the Renegades - maybe he could hire Joe Poo Poo as HC again. What a joke; and very sad for the CFL if that type of B$ comes to pass there.

What a good little boy Naylor is for passing on that info with no thought involved.

[bannedforlife]

Schooners finalizing business plan for HRM
Francis Campbell The Halifax Chronicle Herald June 29 2019

The bid to bring the Canadian Football League and a community stadium to Halifax has not moved the ball forward in recent months but behind-the-scenes analysis is expected to heat up after Canada Day.

“Schooners Sports and Entertainment (SSE) is working diligently to finalize a business plan and we anticipate presenting a proposal to senior staff at the Halifax Regional Municipality in the very near term,” Jim Armour, president of Summa Strategies, an Ottawa public relations firm working with SSE, said in an email.

“The proposal will address areas of concern that have been raised by the community and it will be validated by independent, third-party experts.”

SSE is the ownership group that wants to bring a 10th CFL team, the Atlantic Schooners, to Halifax.

Jacques Dube, chief administrative officer for HRM, said Wednesday that his group awaits the full proposal from Schooners Sports.

“We’re waiting for that so that we can start working on the evaluation and the feasibility analysis and the impacts,” Dube said. “That’s about a six-month process. If we get it (proposal) in early July that means we will probably get something before council by December.”

CFL talk regarding Halifax reignited in earnest some two years ago. The ownership group acquired the Atlantic Schooners trademark and approached the league about a conditional franchise. Anthony LeBlanc, former president of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League and one of three principal owners of SSE, originally projected a 24,000-seat stadium to be built at a cost of $190 million.

The stadium objective was later tempered to 12,000 permanent seats with a capability of adding 12,000 more temporary seats. The adjusted price tag for the community stadium is $130 million.

Through an agreement with Sport Nova Scotia, the stadium could accommodate minor sports when it is not in use for professional football. The field, including an air-inflated dome to cover it in colder months, could serve as a facility for minor soccer, football and rugby associations and school sports for 200 to 300 days a year.

SSE has been negotiating with Canada Lands, the federal Crown corporation tasked with managing and redeveloping surplus military properties, for the purchase of an eight-hectare plot of land in the 33-hectare Shannon Park site by Halifax harbour.

LeBlanc has said that SSE will be heavily involved on the financial side of the stadium and will take on the operational costs. The proposed municipal financial contribution would come from a public financing plan used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure and debt financing. A Tax Increment Financing plan would have some of the entire Shannon Park area reallocating funds from property taxes on area developments to pay the stadium's debt charges.

It has been suggested that the province’s financial contribution to a stadium could come in the form of legislative changes to allow HRM to collect car rental fees and hotel room levies.

“There are a lot of moving parts with this one,” Dube said. “There is also a discussion with the province and the private sector and the land owner.”

Chris Millier, real estate director for Canada Lands, said the land being considered for the community stadium is in the northeast portion of the Shannon Park property, adjacent to the railway tracks, land that had been identified primarily for commercial/employment with accessory residential uses in a 2016 park concept plan.

“CLC (Canada Lands) is requiring SSE to undertake public consultation regarding the proposed development of a community stadium,” Millier said by email. “CLC and SSE have entered into a letter of intent that establishes conditions that must be met before a commercial transaction can be considered, including a formal request being made to CLC by Halifax Regional Municipality and the province of Nova Scotia to accommodate the proposed use at Shannon Park.”

Dube said there is a lot of work to be done in terms of determining “any operating impacts on our municipal services – fire, police, transit and everything else.”

"We’re not willing to take on any risk, so we’ve got to put a barrier around, a firewall around the risk factors,” Dube said. “We don’t want to take any construction risk, financial risk, contractual risk in making this work. Hopefully, we’ll get a proposal and get to work on evaluating it.”

Armour said SSE and Canada Lands have engaged a number of world-class organizations to ensure that “we have considered all possible factors in the design, development and operation of a multi-use sports and entertainment facility.”

[CFLfan]

Jacques Dube, chief administrative officer for HRM, said Wednesday that his group awaits the full proposal from Schooners Sports.

“We’re waiting for that so that we can start working on the evaluation and the feasibility analysis and the impacts,” Dube said. “That’s about a six-month process. If we get it (proposal) in early July that means we will probably get something before council by December.”

Likely we won't get a yes or no before January 2020, the proposal would go before council in December "IF" the proposal is submitted in July.

[bannedforlife]

Likely we won't get a yes or no before January 2020, the proposal would go before council in December "IF" the proposal is submitted in July.

Wow, that's a useful restate of the obvious "cflfan"

[Neely2005]

Now looking at starting in 2021 in Moncton:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/c...2021-1.5202241

[CFLfan]

Now looking at starting in 2021 in Moncton:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/c...2021-1.5202241

They are going to have to guage interest first. Wait and see how many show up for the Moncton game in August.

[bannedforlife]

They are going to have to guage interest first. Wait and see how many show up for the Moncton game in August.

I'm sure no matter how that goes you'll find a way to put your "spin" on it

[CFLfan]

I'm sure no matter how that goes you'll find a way to put your "spin" on it

Spin? if there is no local fan interest in a CFL game, I doubt Leblanc is going to locate a team there for a couple of years. What's the point?
It would make more sense to wait until his stadium in Halifax is ready.