How would the proposed Halifax stadium compare to the rest of the venues in the CFL?

Major updates regarding the proposed addition of a Halifax-based team in the CFL are due to be announced by the end of March.

Towards the end of 2018 it appeared that the project had stalled somewhat, but recent reports suggest that progress has been made.

If all goes to plan, we could see the revival of the Atlantic Schooners franchise as early as 2020, with the team playing their home games at Moncton Stadium whilst their own dedicated stadium is constructed in Halifax.

The proposal of the new 24,000-seater facility in Shannon Park has proven to be one of the stumbling blocks in the negotiations. But there is optimism that the Schooners Sports and Entertainment group (formerly Maritime Football Limited) could be the organization able to finally bring a CFL franchise to Halifax. CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie has stated that the group is in a significantly better financial position to bring a team to Atlantic Canada than the previous group who attempted to do so.

Assuming it’s good news that is announced in the coming weeks for those in favour of the expansion of the CFL and the plans for the stadium in Shannon Park go ahead, the home of the Atlantic Schooners will be the second smallest venue in the league, despite being the newest.

The CFL’s Largest Venues

In terms of the largest sporting venues by spectator capacity for a given sport, the Olympic Stadium remains as the biggest venue to host a football game in Canada.

However, since the Montreal Alouettes returned to the Molson Stadium in 1998, ‘The Big O’ has not been used to host regular season games in the CFL.

With their 50,000+ capacities, The Brickfield at Commonwealth Stadium and BC Place are someway ahead, in terms of spectator capacity, of the other 7 dedicated venues being used week in, week out in the league and are significantly larger than the venue planned to be constructed in Shannon Park.

That being said though, a 24,000-seater stadium, whilst significantly smaller than most of the venues the West Division, will only have 1,000 fewer seats than Toronto’s BMO Field and Ottawa’s TD Place Stadium, which are the joint largest in the East Division.

The proposed Atlantic Schooners stadium at Shannon Park is set to cost between $130m and $190m, an amount which pales in comparison to the $544m cost of renovating the BC Stadium back in 2011.

But Anthony LeBlanc, one of the three founders of the Schooners Sports and Entertainment group, is looking to replicate the approach taken following the construction of the aforementioned BMO field in Toronto in 2007; initially building a modest stadium (in terms of cost) and then renovating it in the years to come.

“We feel now we can get this thing down closer to $130 million in a first phase that would be a very functional stadium just like BMO Field was when it opened, then we can look down the road and maybe get certain benchmarks for attendance.”

In the case of the BMO Field, $270m of renovations have taken place in recent years since the stadium was initially constructed at a cost of $62.9m.

Considering the risks associated with starting a new franchise, it’s understandable that LeBlanc and his fellow group members want to minimize the initial investment in the stadium and wait until revenue is being generated before considering additional plans.

We should all have a clearer idea of what is likely to transpire in the next couple of weeks, once the latest announcements have been made regarding the progress of Schooners Sports and Entertainment’s plans to bring a franchise to Halifax.

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