HALIFAX—If the Schooners want municipal money for a stadium, they’ll have to sail beyond Shannon Park.

In a report headed to council on Tuesday, staff are recommending regional council conditionally approve a one-time contribution of $20 million toward the construction of a football stadium — but only if it’s not in the proponents’ preferred location.

Schooner Sports and Entertainment (SSE) submitted its proposal for a CFL stadium in Shannon Park in Dartmouth to the municipality in late August, and chief administrative officer Jacques Dubé released the details in September: a $100-million stadium with up to 24,000 seats, funded by municipal and provincial tax dollars.

Council debated a motion from Coun. Sam Austin to kill the stadium proposal in October, but opted instead to fast track this staff report, which was expected to take six months.

Municipal staff now say they’re fine with paying for about a fifth of that $100-million construction cost, but not in the proposed location and only when the stadium is substantially complete.

Deputy Mayor Lisa Blackburn said she had yet to read the report closely enough to make a decision, but she was happy to see staff recommend in favour of a different location.

“The cost of the stadium itself is one thing, but holy smokes, the cost of providing infrastructure to Shannon Park was the sticker shock I was worried about,” she said in an interview on Friday.

Blackburn said she also likes the idea of holding onto the funding until substantial completion.

“I think that builds in a certain level of protection to the taxpayer,” she said.

Coun. Tony Mancini, whose district includes the Shannon Park lands, was similarly happy to see that location off the table.

“The infrastructure costs were going to be more than our contribution to the stadium,” he said.

Mancini said SSE could now look to previously-considered locations like Dartmouth Crossing and a piece of provincially-owned land in the Woodside area. But he said he has no idea what SSE thinks of the staff recommendation.

“Are we totally out in left field to them? That may be the case, or that may be something they’re willing to have a conversation around,” Mancini said.

SSE declined interview requests till after Tuesday’s council meeting, but in an emailed statement, founding partner Anthony LeBlanc said the group “welcomes the recommendation.”

“We appreciate the due diligence HRM staff have exercised in this process and support the considerations raised regarding site selection for this important community project,” LeBlanc said.

“We look forward to receiving HRM council’s decision on whether to approve this recommendation and we stand ready to work diligently with staff and the community to ensure the success of this game-changing community development.”

The staff report — written by Jerry Blackwood, director of corporate and customer services; Denise Schofield, director of parks and recreation; Kelly Denty, director of planning and development; and Bruce Fisher, manager of financial policy and planning — pokes holes in nearly every aspect of SSE’s plan. It’s primarily focused, however, on transportation infrastructure issues.

“The proposal submitted by SSE for the Shannon Park lands indicates a number of transportation and mobility concerns with the site which to date, have not been resolved,” the report says.

Those concerns include access to and from the MacKay Bridge and possible traffic lineups due to rail crossings at some of the access points to Shannon Park.

The site could require new ferry service, the report says, with capital costs of up to $40 million for a terminal and extra ferries.

The proposal also “does not include an associated developer,” meaning there’s no proper analysis of the impacts on transportation or water infrastructure.

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There are also safety concerns from Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency, with the report saying, “there is potential for delay in establishing an effective firefighting response.”

The report lays out the municipality’s proposed conditions for providing a one-time payment of $20 million toward a stadium — including no guarantee for SSE’s loan, no “participation or cost sharing in capital, operating or maintenance costs,” and full payment of property taxes by SSE.

“While a stadium would add a valuable piece of infrastructure to Halifax, the financial options proposed by SSE for the stadium require a considerable amount of public funds and all are dependent upon the success of an untested Halifax CFL franchise and Halifax market. As such, the options proposed present considerable risk to the municipal taxpayer,” the report says.

“At the same time, partnership with a private sector sponsor offers the chance for the community to acquire this infrastructure with the private partner carrying the majority of the cost and risk.”

SSE originally gave the municipality five options to pay its share of the stadium, ranging from a one-time payment of up to $22 million to $30 million in payments over 30 years. Later, the group came back with one option; annual payments of $2 million, paid back through ticket sales.

But the staff report says SSE’s original options would cost the municipality between $41 million and $79 million.

The municipality’s cost estimates are higher because SSE’s assumptions around ticket sales were “aggressive.”

“The SSE proposal assumes that each of the 10 regular games will sell 21,600 tickets or 96 per cent of stadium capacity,” the report says.

“Relative to the size of its population, this provides the Halifax team with the second highest attendance per capita amongst CFL teams, second only to Regina and ahead of the popular Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg markets.”

The staff report also rejects the proposal for funding the stadium through a tax increment financing, or TIF, scheme. Under such a scheme, increased tax revenues in the properties surrounding the stadium would offset the cost.

“Based on its analysis, the CAO and his team have concluded that a TIF in the Shannon Park area is unlikely to produce any significant incremental tax revenues,” the report said.

Aside from a new location, municipal staff say they also want more information in an updated proposal, including a game day transportation plan and water and sewer schematics.

Council meets Tuesday morning. It can endorse the recommendation in full; tweak the recommended conditions for funding; direct staff to continue assessing Shannon Park as the site; or reject the SSE proposal altogether.

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