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We feel comfortable that we can do a good, decent CFL-approved stadium for about $130 million. -

Despite some adjustments to his field of dreams, the man who wants to bring the Canadian Football League to Halifax remains optimistic.

“Everybody agrees that we have to figure out if this is a go or a no-go by the midpoint of this year,” said Anthony LeBlanc, one of three principal owners of the Atlantic Schooners franchise.

By Canada Day, LeBlanc hopes to have a definitive answer for Halifax fans.

“Our view is that we have five months until then. Let’s figure it out, let’s work closely with HRM staff, get them all the data that they require and then they can analyze over the next couple of months, put together a recommendation and bring it to council.”

LeBlanc was in Halifax on Tuesday to meet with HRM staff and talk with the fledgling franchise’s legal and public relations teams.

Moving the chains towards kickoff

Shannon Park, pictured here on Oct. 30, is the preferred location for a 24,000 seat stadium proposed by Maritime Football Ltd. - Ryan Taplin

LeBlanc and company have been in painfully slow negotiations with Canada Lands to purchase a plot of land at Shannon Park in order to build a 24,000-seat stadium. The stadium cost was originally pegged at $170 million to $190 million but

LeBlanc said the ownership group has adjusted its sights for a $130-million stadium, still with the same seating.

LeBlanc credits a comment made by Mayor Mike Savage at a meeting back in November with the revised stadium goal.

“He asked if it’s possible to have a phased approach, a base building that you add on to later,” LeBlanc said. “We hadn’t thought of that.”

LeBlanc said that same week he visited BMO Field in Toronto, where the CFL Argonauts play. He said a functional stadium there opened in the early 2000s and enhancements were layered in over the years as the business model proved itself.

“We feel comfortable that we can do a good, decent CFL-approved stadium for about $130 million. We are going to make it clear that this has to be a fixed price. Any overrun would have to be taken on by the group that builds it.”

Cost savings means less risk.

“It reduces the cost of financing,” said LeBlanc, former president and co-owner of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League. “There are two elements in the financials of the stadium. There is the debt that you have to pay annually and there is the operations costs.”

The debt cost for a $190-million building had been estimated at about $10 million annually. Now, LeBlanc says that $10 million can cover both annual debt and operational costs of about $3 million to $4 million.

“We’ll take on the operational costs and we’ll definitely be involved on the financing side,” LeBlanc said of his group. “If you look at what the province can generate with those two tax breaks and then what would be necessary from HRM’s perspective, it really reduces the risk on HRM to what we hope is viewed as an acceptable level.”

The proposed municipal financial contribution would come from a public financing plan used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure and debt financing. A Tax Increment Financing plan would have some of the entire 35-hectare Shannon Park area reallocating funds from property taxes on area developments to pay the stadium's debt charges.

Proposed changes to car rentals and hotel room levies would require provincial legislative changes.

LeBlanc said he and his partners have probably shelled out more than a million dollars of their own money on the CFL expansion goal and they want to reach a final decision at the latest by Aug. 25, the date of the Touchdown Atlantic game.

That game is likely to be played at Moncton Stadium, which has 10,000 permanent seats and the ability to accommodate more than another 10,000 temporary seats. Other potential sites are Antigonish and Saint John, N.B. Moncton could also be home to the Schooners for the 2020 season while a stadium is being built in Halifax, LeBlanc said.

He said he’s talked with Sport Nova Scotia about off-day and off-season uses for a Halifax stadium, which could be fitted for a field-covering dome.

LeBlanc hopes his ownership group’s plan will go to regional council by late spring and that he can announce the team’s a go shortly after that.

“We are trying to de-risk this for everybody but you can’t eliminate risk. I wish there was such a thing as a sure thing in business. I haven’t found it yet.”

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