De quoi il se mêle, jaloux va !
Publié : 14 juillet 2006 10:14
Als' president blasts Saputo Stadium
Alouettes’ president Larry Smith criticized a plan to build a soccer stadium next to the Big O, saying it’s impossible to build a quality stadium with so little money.
The Montreal Impact announced a project last Thursday to build a $15 million stadium that would hold 13,000 fans, with the possibility of expanding to 18,000. The Saputo family is chipping in $7.5 million and the rest of the money is coming through private donations. One year ago, the Impact originally said the stadium would be built on the Peel Basin near downtown Montreal. Team president Joey Saputo said the new location offers more “positive attributes” than the Technoparc location such as existing infrastructure, parking and metro accessibility, as he said the Impact’s fanbase is from all over Montreal.
By comparison, Toronto just announced a 20,000-seat soccer stadium for $62.9 million of which the federal government is kicking in $27 million.
The Alouettes are also investing in a stadium. The team is paying $5 million into a $40 million project to improve McGill’s Molson Stadium and add 5,000 seats. Most of the money for that project comes from the three levels of government. Smith told The Suburban that the Impact should not expect to have a decent stadium at the price they plan to pay.
“At $15 million, it will be more of a full-time temporary type of stadium,” he said. “I’m not trying to be rude, but for $15 million, you can’t really build a permanent stadium.”
Smith said when the team was planning its expansion, he contacted the Impact to see if the team was interested in the Molson Stadium project.
“We had some preliminary discussions, but there was no interest from the Impact,” he said.
Saputo said a number of factors went into them rejecting the Alouettes offer, one of which was the Als desire to have a synthetic turf.
“I think it’s important to take a look at the facility once it’s finished and at that particular point judge exactly if we did what was right or we didn’t do what was right,” Saputo said. “I know that the Alouettes are working to increase the capacity of their stadium and I wish them the best of luck. Fortunately, I think there’s room in the city to have a football stadium and a soccer-specific stadium.”
He defended the project, saying that the stadium will be a permanent stadium that would be intimate for the fans rather than a half empty stadium with no “ambience.”
“The thing is, remember, we’re not building the Olympic Stadium, nor are we building baseball stadiums that are being built in the States. I think what we want to do is we want to build something that is very modest but at the same time will serve our purpose,” Saputo said, pointing out that Rochester, New York built a 20,000-seat stadium for $22 million and Charleston, South Carolina, a 5,000-seat structure for $8 million.
Smith said he also approached Expos managing partner Claude Brochu to talk about a stadium for both the Expos and the Alouettes on a site just south of the Bell Centre, where the Montreal Canadiens play.
“We proposed a 31,000-seat stadium and we would have invested some money into it, but they had their own vision,” he said.
The Expos had planned a 40,000-seat stadium — a project that was estimated to cost $100 million.
However, the project was abandoned by then-Expos majority owner Jeffrey Loria. The land has now been turned into condominiums.
http://thesuburban.com/content.jsp?sid= ... id=1008232
Alouettes’ president Larry Smith criticized a plan to build a soccer stadium next to the Big O, saying it’s impossible to build a quality stadium with so little money.
The Montreal Impact announced a project last Thursday to build a $15 million stadium that would hold 13,000 fans, with the possibility of expanding to 18,000. The Saputo family is chipping in $7.5 million and the rest of the money is coming through private donations. One year ago, the Impact originally said the stadium would be built on the Peel Basin near downtown Montreal. Team president Joey Saputo said the new location offers more “positive attributes” than the Technoparc location such as existing infrastructure, parking and metro accessibility, as he said the Impact’s fanbase is from all over Montreal.
By comparison, Toronto just announced a 20,000-seat soccer stadium for $62.9 million of which the federal government is kicking in $27 million.
The Alouettes are also investing in a stadium. The team is paying $5 million into a $40 million project to improve McGill’s Molson Stadium and add 5,000 seats. Most of the money for that project comes from the three levels of government. Smith told The Suburban that the Impact should not expect to have a decent stadium at the price they plan to pay.
“At $15 million, it will be more of a full-time temporary type of stadium,” he said. “I’m not trying to be rude, but for $15 million, you can’t really build a permanent stadium.”
Smith said when the team was planning its expansion, he contacted the Impact to see if the team was interested in the Molson Stadium project.
“We had some preliminary discussions, but there was no interest from the Impact,” he said.
Saputo said a number of factors went into them rejecting the Alouettes offer, one of which was the Als desire to have a synthetic turf.
“I think it’s important to take a look at the facility once it’s finished and at that particular point judge exactly if we did what was right or we didn’t do what was right,” Saputo said. “I know that the Alouettes are working to increase the capacity of their stadium and I wish them the best of luck. Fortunately, I think there’s room in the city to have a football stadium and a soccer-specific stadium.”
He defended the project, saying that the stadium will be a permanent stadium that would be intimate for the fans rather than a half empty stadium with no “ambience.”
“The thing is, remember, we’re not building the Olympic Stadium, nor are we building baseball stadiums that are being built in the States. I think what we want to do is we want to build something that is very modest but at the same time will serve our purpose,” Saputo said, pointing out that Rochester, New York built a 20,000-seat stadium for $22 million and Charleston, South Carolina, a 5,000-seat structure for $8 million.
Smith said he also approached Expos managing partner Claude Brochu to talk about a stadium for both the Expos and the Alouettes on a site just south of the Bell Centre, where the Montreal Canadiens play.
“We proposed a 31,000-seat stadium and we would have invested some money into it, but they had their own vision,” he said.
The Expos had planned a 40,000-seat stadium — a project that was estimated to cost $100 million.
However, the project was abandoned by then-Expos majority owner Jeffrey Loria. The land has now been turned into condominiums.
http://thesuburban.com/content.jsp?sid= ... id=1008232
