The roof is new, and it can open when the weather is dry, but it remains a three-ring circus under the big top.
I’m talking about BC Place Stadium where Bell tenderly walks a tightrope above angry Telus-tamed lions in one ring and the BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) executives in three-piece suits take turns as human cannonballs in another while Premier Christy Clark and minister responsible Pat Bell act like clowns under a spotlight in the middle.
Of course, there has to be an elephant in the room. That represents the cost of the stadium renovations (somewhere beyond the budgeted $563 million) and the condition of the roof (with $1 million to $10 million of damage from grease-leaking cables).
The auditor general may ultimately be required to unravel the astounding ball of twine.
We now know that PavCo pursued Telus, pitching the Telus Place name in 2010 with a proposal (obtained by CKNW) that did not include exclusivity for industry promotion and advertising rights in the seating area, ribbon board or field during Vancouver Whitecaps games. The Whitecaps put Bell on their jerseys and christened the synthetic turf Bell Pitch. Telus was not amused, but still installed video screens, Wi-Fi and mobile phone antennas worth at between $10 million and $15 million.
Clark and Bell, in the tradition of Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and Alphonse and Gaston, first claimed the $35 million to $40 million deal wasn’t big enough and then said the BC Place name was “iconic.”
What really happened? Construction troubles cascaded, and it took much longer for Telus and subcontractor Cisco to do their work to make the stadium the most digital in North America. Telus wrestled with higher costs, and the value of the deal shrunk when the 99th Grey Cup came and went. Clearly Telus did what any business would do: re-jig the deal that was already on the government’s desk.
The Liberals felt jilted, after directly awarding Telus the $1 billion 10-year government telecommunications contract in a tendering process that Rogers, Shaw and Bell called unfair and against trade pacts and government regulations.
Ultimately, the Telus deal may have been the best available, at any time. Scotiabank is the only other known bidder, and Telus wanted to counter the Rogers sponsorship of the Canucks’ home rink.
The province’s biggest private-sector employer (and one of the few major Canadian corporations headquartered in Vancouver) also brought to the table a database of 25,000 workers and retirees who could have represented bulk ticket buys for stadium events.
Vancouver is always trying to be world-class, but the fact is, it’s not even a North American top 10 TV market. It’s No. 22, according to figures compiled by Nielsen and BBM. At 3.5 million, the region’s size puts it between Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina. Being in the Pacific time zone is also a barrier for advertisers who want to target the lucrative east coast in prime time.
BC Place’s main tenants are in Major League Soccer and the Canadian Football League, which command TV audiences that are only a fraction of those for the NFL and NCAA football and Major League Baseball.
If anything, the naming rights controversy should force the government to answer why it is in the stadium business at all. It’s neither a utility nor an essential service. Even after the renovations, a $49 million combined loss is forecast over the next three fiscal years.
Before the 2010 Winter Olympics bid was settled, Lions’ owner David Braley told yours truly in 2003 that he would offer to buy the stadium to save it from the condo development crowd.
In 2005, Whitecaps’ owner Greg Kerfoot wanted to build his own stadium north of Gastown with his own money, but got a sweetheart deal by False Creek instead. Certainly they could have been offered at least a stake in management of the property, but privatization does not appear to have been on the mind of the government or PavCo chairman David Podmore.
As long as Clark friend Kerfoot owns the Whitecaps (and Clark remains in power), it won’t happen. •
