Asper, Bombers hold community meeting on stadium plan

Residents in Winnipeg's Fort Garry neighbourhood are invited to a community meeting Wednesday about the Blue Bombers football stadium proposed for the University of Manitoba campus.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at St. John's College, located on campus at 92 Dysart Road.

Winnipeg business magnate David Asper will be on hand, along with the Winnipeg Football Club chairman Bill Watchorn.

The provincial government announced last month that it is contributing $90-million in bridge financing to fast-track construction of a $137.5-million development on the U of M campus.

The project includes a $115-million football stadium, while $22.5 million will be spent on fitness facilities for amateur athletics. The stadium will be built on an eight-hectare site at Chancellor-Matheson Road and University Crescent.

It will have 33,000 fixed seats but be able to accommodate 40,000 for major events. An inflatable dome will cover the field in winter so university teams can use it during the CFL off-season.

The bridge financing will help Asper, who has agreed to eventually pay $100 million towards the project and take ownership of the team.

Asper, a former Blue Bombers board member who has been trying since September 2006 to buy the team, has until 2016 to pay off the bridge financing.

If he fails to do so, the football club will remain community owned as it has been since being founded in 1930 and the loan will be paid back by the province and city, Premier Greg Selinger said when the deal was announced March 31.

The stadium itself will remain community-owned in perpetuity.

Asper intends to pay off the financing with revenues from a retail development planned by his real estate company, Creswin Properties Ltd., on the site of the Bombers current home turf, Canad Inns Stadium.

Deal approved by city committee

The Executive Policy Committee, also known as the mayor's cabinet, approved on Wednesday morning the city's part of the complicatedarrangement with Asper and Creswin.

Under the terms of the deal which must still be passed by city council at a meeting next week the city will sell the Canad Inns Stadium for a price that has yet to be determined.

That site, adjacent to thePolo Park Shopping Centre, will bedeveloped intoa ritzy retail plaza to be namedThe Elms.

The two-level, 650,000-square-footplaza "will feature the most expansive collection of luxury retailers within hundreds of miles, including a number making their first foray into Canada," according to Creswin.

The vote byEPCrecommendsthe Canad Inns site be declared surplus land. The sale price will be determined by independent appraisers hired by the city and Creswin.

Mayor Sam Katz, when asked what the value might be, said he has heard ballpark estimatesbetween $20 million and $25 million.