There’s talk about a CFL football team coming back to Ottawa, but with our stadium about to be partially demolished, somewhere to play is a requirement of the deal going through. The current Lansdown Park location is ideal because it’s so centrally located, but being near downtown, parking is always an issue.
To my great amusement, Ottawa Mayor Larry ‘Moneybags’ O’Brien said,
People can’t be forced to walk five, six blocks to park their cars.
Yea, a five block trek would certainly kill people. They might as well be competing in the Iditarod without a dog team. He suggests underground parking or a parking garage, which just goes to show money is never a problem when the money is someone else’s.
Former Ottawa Renegades CEO John Lisowski, on the other hand, suggests parking shouldn’t be part of deal. People can take mass-transit or walk from where they parked, just as they always have.
The amusing headline, based on Lisowski’s comment, is,
Ditch parking in Ottawa stadium revamp plans, former team head suggests
Ditch parking? I imagine many people would end up getting stuck. Parking in a ditch would be risky, especially in the spring.
_Don
What is it with Ottawa and getting teams? This is the third iteration of a CFL team. Now, call me crazy, but the other versions failed due to poor attendance (and surely other things). So it would be in this writer’s mind that, hey, the public in Ottawa are not big football fans. But hey, what do I know. I’m not a big football fan.
And then there is the issue of venues. When the city got the team (over Hamilton — my hometown — of which I’m still holding a grudge), there wasn’t a proper venue. The civic centre was way too small (unlike Hamilton’s 18000 seat Copps Colesium). Now the CFL is back — we should call the team 3.0 — and yet again the venue is the issue.
I guess we could use one of the university fields, like Montreal does.
Shawn
And wait until our tax dollars get sucked in yet again. And like last time, they will only be able to pay for bottom basement players, lose games and attendance will suck, because Ottawa has fair weather fans.