Scott Edgar with It's More Than Buses says that if the stadium were built as currently suggested, many Haligonians may have a hard time getting there

With the announcement of the details for the proposed CFL stadium in Halifax last week, some local advocates are thinking ahead.

Scott Edgar with It's More Than Buses says that if the stadium were built as currently suggested, many Haligonians may have a hard time getting there.

"I think that would be incredibly difficult," Edgar tells NEWS 95.7.

The sketch of the stadium released by Schooner Sports Entertainment (SSE) indicates a total of 450 parking lots for the 24,000 seat stadium.

But Edgar says if all those attendees aren't driving, Halifax Transit buses would be flooded with riders getting to and from games.

"It would be a nightmare to get out of the game and then stand in line for half an hour or an hour to even get on the bus," he explains. "Because it takes so much time to load that many people onto buses."

The advocate also says that because no routes currently go to Shannon Park, the proposed stadium location, it would require increase funds to schedule buses.

"You're talking about extra operator hours, possibly the need for extra buses," he says. "That would be a really, really expensive proposition."

When talking about other options for getting people there, Edgar also said because Shannon Park is along the water, ferries could be an option.

But again, he says the loading time would be a long wait.

"The capacity of the ferry itself is only maybe 200-300 people ," Edgar explains. "So if we're talking about moving 20,000 people by ferry, we're talking about lineups of hours and hours just to get onto the ferry, while you're waiting for everybody in front of you to load into one ferry after another."

In other Canadian cities, Edgar says CFL stadiums are typically located in highly populated areas.

"Rather in or close to their city's downtown or really close to the city's major university," he adds. "People going to a game can make use of all those downtown parking lots, or those university parking lots."

But with Shannon Park in the North end of Dartmouth, Edgar says the stadium would be the only parking nearby.

"There's really nowhere else to park around there," he adds.

One solution Edgar sees is an attempt to get people to walk to games. But the years-long process would include building up the population in the surrounding area.

"We've got to think about how to make sure most people going to and from games are walking, which means they are living within a walkable distance of Shannon Park," he says.

For that to happen, Edgar thinks a project as large as the Cogswell redevelopment would have to pop up.

"If that's the scale we're talking about, maybe a stadium could possibly work from a transportation perspective," he says.

But a transit advocate through-and-through, Edgar does add that the stadium is not at the top of his priority list.

"I would rather see the province and the city spend money on other things, like making transit better for everybody."