Winnipeg Blue Bomber Stadium Financial and Construction Problems

[jerrym]

As so often happens with publicly funded stadiums, there are problems, this time in Winnipeg.

The Manitoba government is writing off the second of two loan segments that helped finance a new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. Premier Brian Pallister said Wednesday there is no reasonable chance that the Bombers and others in the consortium that owns Investors Group Field can repay the $82 million.

"Despite the best efforts of the team on the field last year, where they profited to the tune ... of over $2 million, that wouldn't even come halfway towards the obligations the [former NDP government] set up for them," Pallister said.
The province has already written off another $118-million loan portion that helped get the stadium built in 2013. Finance Minister Scott Fielding said the new loan writeoff will affect the final deficit figure for the last fiscal year, which is to be revealed later this week.
Investors Group Field has faced challenges since the beginning. There were cost overruns and repairs needed soon after it opened. Commercial development on the old stadium site, which was to help pay for the new facility, stalled. ...

Pallister said the Bombers may continue to make some payments, but the payments are not expected to be large enough to pay back the principal of the loan.
In a statement, the Bombers said that "to date, the Winnipeg Football Club has met its financial obligations with respect to the stadium, in accordance with the Management Agreement with Triple B Stadium Inc. The Club has made cumulative annual excess cash payments totalling $17M to Triple B and will continue to meet its financial obligations," spokesperson Darren Cameron said in the statement.

They anticipate making minimum but not maximum payments going forward, and will be looking at other ways to collect fees to make annual payments to Triple B possible. "The Winnipeg Football Club agrees with the Province that the current model is unsustainable and is not viable over the long term. We look forward to working with the Province and other stakeholders to arrive at a viable long-term solution for all parties," the statement concludes.
The Bombers were given a break on loan interest until this year, and the interest payments at current rates would work out to an extra $4 million in annual costs for a facility that hosts 10 regular season games each year and a handful of other events such as concerts.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...loan-1.4839478

[jerrym]

There have been problems with the stadium from the beginning.

The owners of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ stadium allege in a lawsuit that the architect and builder should be made to pay for extensive repairs to Investors Group Field made necessary by faulty design and construction.
The $210-million CFL stadium, which opened in 2013 and will host the 2015 Grey Cup, has been plagued by problems such as leaky luxury suite roofs, insufficient insulation to keep plumbing operational in Winnipeg winters and poor drainage. It also needed immediate renovations to make it usable for concerts and its press box was unheated, a problem that needed to be fixed in order to host the Grey Cup game.

“During the design and construction of the stadium there was insufficient attention to the mechanics of water drainage and heating, there was poor execution of critical details, and poor construction quality control,” a news release from Triple B Stadium states, citing a report from a Winnipeg architectural and engineering firm. ...

Triple B is a consortium with a board of directors that includes representatives from the Manitoba government, the City of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg Football Club, which owns the Bombers and runs the stadium.

https://globalnews.ca/news/1863367/b...-construction/