Stephen Bronfman had the attitude of a businessman. And Valérie Plante, that of a mayor.
For one of the tenors of the Baseball Montreal Group, the meeting he had Tuesday morning with the mayor on the baseball stadium project was very positive and allowed him to say that “it’s sure that it’s going to be fine. function ”to the journalists who came to hear it.
But for Valérie Plante, “the devil is in the details”. She therefore asks to know more about the nature and feasibility of this project, valued at $ 1 billion, of which a “zero-cost” contribution of $ 300 million would come from Quebec.
She wants the devil and the details to be presented to the public and to be transparent.
Good deal.
One thing is certain, for her there is no question of Montreal becoming the “promoter” of this 35,000-seat stadium intended to host around 40 matches per year. “We have already played in that film and we saw what it looked like,” said the mayor.
It would have been very astonishing that this meeting resulted in his absolute blessing. She has been extremely cautious about this project in recent months, especially during the weeks of the election campaign.
She then pointed out that if this project saw the light of day, the Montreal Baseball Group would not be entitled to a holiday from property taxes. In fact, what Stephen Bronfman wants to get from the City of Montreal is that it gives up its right of veto over the land in question, that is, that located in front of the Peel Basin and which belongs to the federal government.
Valérie Plante is a thousand times right to be cautious. Quebec has its share of white elephants. The last thing taxpayers want is to add to the herd.
On November 5, the Montrealers clearly showed their preference for Valérie Plante over Denis Coderre, who is associated with the return of baseball and this project.
The mayoress cannot disappoint the citizens. She must show them that she will be a super strong judge in this case. She cannot afford to make a bad choice. She knows that too well.
But there is more. The mayor’s concerns must go beyond the baseball stadium project. By giving up its right of pre-emption on this land, it must also know what to do with it.
What kind of development will we see? Because it is probably not only baseball that drives the promoters of this project.
But in this game of negotiations and negotiations, I am still surprised that the issue of the Olympic Stadium does not succeed.
While the members of the Baseball Montreal Group requested a meeting with the provincial government, last spring, the management of the Olympic Park tried to recall that a juggernaut built at great expense (4.5 billion to date) by Quebecers existed. still at the corner of Boulevard Pie-IX and Avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin.
Operating the Olympic Stadium rather than building a new stadium is the wish of many, including Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of the Economy. Note that his government intends to invest 490 million over the next ten years in the renovation of the Stadium and the Olympic Park.
I tried to get an interview of about fifteen minutes on Tuesday with Michel Labrecque, President and CEO of the Olympic Park. His press officer told me that “his diary was full”.
However, last March, Michel Labrecque said on QUB Radio that the stadium was ready to host baseball games anytime, “before, during or after”.
Remember that the Olympic Stadium, a multi-purpose venue nevertheless designed to host baseball games, hosted the preparatory matches for the Blue Jays from 2014 to 2019.
Michel Labrecque reminds that the Olympic Stadium site has 4,000 parking spaces and is served by two metro stations and soon three REM stations.
So why not the Olympic Stadium?
Because for sports fans, the stadium “experience” sucks. The Expos, the Alouettes and the Impact audiences have never appreciated this cold space, too vast and which does not offer the magic of the discovered stadiums built in recent years.
In short, the lifespan of a stadium is today equivalent to that of a generation. All the same incredible!
It seems that sports fans have a greater propensity for novelty than those of the theater and opera. The latter continue to frequent with undisguised emotion the ancient theater of Orange, in France (built during the reign of Augustus, in the Iis century BC AD), or the theater of Epidaurus, in Greece (built in the IVe century av. J.-C.).
One thing is certain, the Quebec government will have to make a heartbreaking choice: invest 300 million in a new stadium that will serve private interests or inject nearly 500 million in the renovation of a stadium which we are preparing to celebrate the 50e anniversary and said to be outdated and obsolete.
For the moment, I have the impression of witnessing a vast staging which consists in making us believe that we can do both.
Bread and games, they said in Roman times. They did not know that the people would one day pay so much for these games. And for the yeast.
