Only one team can win the Grey Cup on November 27, but the province has gambled $1.88 million in taxpayer money to bring Canada?s biggest football game to B.C. Place Stadium and secure a victory for the refurbished stadium.
That?s how much it cost BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) to convince the Canadian Football League (CFL) to hold the championship in Western Canada for a third consecutive year after 2009 in Calgary and 2010 in Edmonton. The biggest annual sports championship in Canada will be contested at BC Place for the eighth time, but this will be different. The downtown stadium that hosted the first indoor football championship game in Canadian history in 1983 now has fewer and wider seats, better synthetic turf, a giant shoebox video board dangling over centre field and a retractable roof above.
The government wants to show off what it believes is an engineering marvel, to justify the $563 million, 18-month project to refurbish the stadium. It is the site of the riskiest, most expensive renovation of a non-essential public building in Canada, and PavCo needs a big finish to what has been a difficult fall.
Never before has a stadium with an air-supported roof been retrofitted with a retractable system. It?s based on the hub-and-spoke principle, yet the structure is reinforced by a dazzling array of steel masts and cables. Project boosters claim it?s a demonstration of sustainability. Demolition and rebuilding on that site or elsewhere would have been costly and wasteful. Elimination of the air-supported roof means no round-the-clock industrial fans.
But critics wonder about the secrecy of the project and whether taxpayers really got the best value for the dollars invested. The $563 million project was originally to cost $365 million. Serious questions remain about the rush to get it finished, especially since a lawsuit was filed by one of the subcontractors that alleges gross mismanagement. Others point to the myriad big and small high-definition screens, and whether the advertising and information screens have offset whatever energy savings were reaped from eliminating the industrial fans that were in the original stadium.
Even before the original roof ripped and collapsed on January 5, 2007 under the weight of unmelted snow and ice, PavCo was pondering big changes. But is BC Place?s rejuvenation less about a stadium and more about stimulating the city?s most dynamic industry, real estate development?
Missing business plan
In 2005, the Vancouver Whitecaps went public with secretive owner Greg Kerfoot?s proposal for an outdoor stadium north of Gastown, on a podium over Canadian Pacific Railway tracks. Mayor Sam Sullivan?s NPA majority city council referred the Whitecaps to Port Metro Vancouver, but they could never agree.
Enter PavCo chairman David Podmore, who was appointed in spring 2007 by Premier Gordon Campbell. A decade earlier, Podmore coveted the same land, but nothing happened.
Concert Properties and Las Vegas gambling tycoon Steve Wynn?s Seaport Centre casino and convention complex was widely opposed. As volunteer chairman, Podmore had the keys to the biggest room in town and gave Kerfoot an offer he couldn?t refuse – a stadium for his team to play in with a sweetheart lease rate.
The Whitecaps needed a place to play if they were going to enter Major League Soccer. BC Place needed another tenant to gain cabinet approval. The BC Lions on their own, with 10 home games a year, were not enough to justify the multimillion-dollar stadium overhaul. According to a December 2008 capital project plan summary, the Whitecaps would deliver at least 15 games a season. They?re now good for 18.
PavCo?s three-page business case also relied on international soccer friendlies, summertime concerts, banquets, convention opening and closing sessions, naming rights, sponsorship, higher food and beverage revenues, land development opportunities and reduced operating costs. The actual business plan is guarded by cabinet secrecy. Of the 324 pages released from submissions to cabinet, some of the 243 heavily censored pages indicate the new retractable roof was justified because it can attract summertime events that were previously repelled by the lack of air conditioning in the old BC Place.
The only viable alternative site for a new stadium downtown was the so-called Esperanza lands north of Pacific Central Station, which were used for storing and staging renovation equipment and materials.
Now, PavCo has until 2049 to repay $150 million of the $563 million cost to refurbish the stadium, a deal meant to augment the $277 million provincial grant handed to the Crown corporation for the retrofit. PavCo hopes to see a further $96 million in lease revenue to cover the initial cost, while the remaining $40 million cost has been categorized as officially deferred maintenance expenses.
Casino campaign
Only two bidders sought to build on land west of the stadium after the tract was put to tender in 2009. Paragon Gaming had a plan that got the most Crown corporations and agencies involved: a mega-casino requiring BC Lottery Corp. (BCLB) partnership and BC Hydro power and booze via the BC Liquor Distribution Branch. It would have produced $6 million in annual lease revenue for 70 years. Paragon had former BCLC chairman T. Richard Turner on its Canadian board. Turner, a prominent Liberal bagman, even intervened when it looked as if the government was having second thoughts about the project in summer 2009.
But the Vancouver Not Vegas coalition convinced city council to vote unanimously against expansion last spring, derailing Paragon?s ambition. Council did give Paragon the blessing to move its existing licence to a new building, but Paragon has opted for a low profile as it regroups. According to BCLC records, nobody from the company was given a pair of BCLC?s Pacific Rim suite tickets to the reopening night Lions? game, despite being BCLC?s and PavCo?s much-hyped partner for the casino application. Paragon even distanced itself from the Edgewater Lounge on Level 3 where provincial and municipal politicians gathered to watch the game. Great Canadian Gaming, which is negotiating a lease renewal for Hastings Racecourse, denies it has discussed an alliance or takeover to enable the BC Place casino complex to proceed.
PavCo is supposed to put land on the east side of BC Place out for tender. It could be a very busy area because the Aquilini family wants to surround Rogers Arena with four towers and build a practice arena across Pacific Boulevard at the decrepit Plaza of Nations.
BC Place?s best hope for its first major private cash infusion was supposed to be the naming rights deal. Grey Cup week could be the most opportune time to finally reveal the delayed announcement.
Project Frog
Telus (TSX:T) has kept a low profile around its ambitious technology and telecommunications installation, code named ?Project Frog.?
Chief financial officer Robert McFarlane said there eventually would be a ?coming out party? for the most-wired and wireless stadium on the continent. Telus also has a 10-year, $1 billion deal to supply government, Crown corporations and health authorities.
The stadium is slowly bringing in new business. The CONCACAF women?s Olympic soccer qualifying tournament is January 19 to 29 and features defending Olympic gold medallist U.S. and Pan American Games champion Canada.
BC Place is co-promoting Roger Waters? The Wall with Live Nation on May 26.
More events mean more bums in seats, more hungry tummies and thirsty throats and more eyeballs to gaze at the advertising.
Exhibition baseball games, featuring the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners, are unlikely because the size of the video board is an obstacle to balls hit fairly. If Vancouver was ever in the running for a full-time franchise, the stadium would have to adapt.
But what will be the final tally be for the refurbished stadium?
Courtroom clash
The $6.5 million lawsuit filed in October by French-headquartered cable installer Freyssinet against Quebec steel contractor Canam Group offers more clarity on a troubling situation that seems to be the root cause for the difficult rebirth.
The Freyssinet statement of claim said Canam announced in November 2010 that it would ?follow an alternate method of erection of the cable,? without consulting Freyssinet.
Freyssinet claims Canam failed to keep work on schedule, directed labour and equipment without Freyssinet?s knowledge or consent, interfered with Freyssinet supervisors and ?permitted rates from Montacier International, a company related to Canam, for labour for erection of the cable which were higher than agreed upon.?
A December 2010 cable crash was the first of several instances of continuing difficulties that delayed the application of roof fabric from February to April and then to June.
Labour pains
Even with the behind-the-scenes intrigue, Podmore announced in early February that the stadium would open September 30 – not the November 1 date previously considered by the board of directors.
Despite all the doubters, it did reopen on time, but without a dress rehearsal.
A sub-sellout crowd of 50,213 showed up for the Lions? game against the Edmonton Eskimos. About the only thing that went right was the pre-game roof opening and the Lions winning their sixth consecutive game.
Fans were greeted with long lineups at box offices, more long lineups at concession stands which stocked inadequate supplies of hot dogs and beer.
PavCo said hundreds of newly hired workers with contractor Centerplate didn?t show up for their shift. Workers had just two days inside the stadium to train before the big night and some quit out of frustration.
Neighbouring residents then threatened a lawsuit after complaining that the flashing lights from a high-definition advertising board at Terry Fox Plaza kept them up at night.
At the Lions? second game, fans reported being drenched by leaks from the roof. With a La Nina winter predicted to bring cold temperatures and snow to the west coast, the new roof is in for an icy baptism.
The Grey Cup offers the stadium its first bona fide sellout, though even that is questionable given that the views from as many as 900 seats are obstructed thanks to the renovation.
Local 1703 of the BC Government and Service Employees? Union issued strike notice in October, and 74% of members accepted a new contract retroactive to last May. But labour peace may run out before the Lions start their next season.
A request to interview Podmore and CEO Warren Buckley was not fulfilled. They were both out of town, according to Pace Group vice-president Trevor Pancoust. ?
